2022-23 Free Agency

wolves82 said:
13 years, no trade, fully guaranteed. Insane was the correct word choice. He's a terrific player but has had injury issues almost every year.

Your observation about the Central divisions is interesting. Really only Contreras was of interest to the big boys on each coast. The big money owners have historically been on both coasts, plus Chicago. St Louis occasionally grabs a big fish like Arenado and Goldschmidt. But yeah, this year it is all on the coasts.
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Granted, the following is anecdotal, but I figured I’d lay out a couple of things I’ve observed:

Twins fans, even before this Correa news, have been restless with the rich Pohlad family not acting like a big spender. The replies to the below tweet vary quite a bit, but there’s quite a few derisive “Twins Way” comments in there about their unwillingness to step up like a big-market team.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1603001013140684800

White Sox fans have been irate at both Jerry Reinsdorf and the front office for failing to finish off what was supposed to be a roster in a championship window, going hunting in the bargain bin for guys like Adam Eaton and Josh Harrison in recent years while giving a supremely dumb 3-year, $16.5M deal to one of the worst hitters in the game, Leury Garcia, just because he can badly fill in at several spots.

Cubs fans are mad at Tom Ricketts for not taking a plunge like the other big spenders for legit top star players, despite sitting on all the money that the Wrigley Field/Gallagher Way empire brings in.

The Tigers appear ready to soft rebuild again after Al Avila’s totally failed rebuild culminated in a spectacular faceplant this past season.

It goes without saying how the Reds, Guardians and Pirates fans feel about their ownership groups.

So that’s a lot of angry, disenfranchised fanbases in the middle of the country. It’s not good for the game of baseball.

…

As a White Sox fan, I still wonder if the 2020 Covid season was somewhat fool’s gold. They got to play all 60 games against the Central divisions, and they lit up opposing pitching and looked like an emerging offensive juggernaut.

Maybe if 2020 had been a normal season, we never would have had such sky-high expectations coming out of that season. Because other than a 2021 division title when the Tribe was mediocre and the Twins were a complete flop, the White Sox have nothing yet to show for their rebuild that they finally started at the end of 2016 after several years of mediocrity.

It’s true, it’s true. Trust me …
 
OldSoulon said:
Mets will be the team everyone hopes will fail miserably
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I hope they have massive success, actually. Let them rack up a couple World Series titles in the next few years if they can. A team figuratively buying championships at an outlandish rate of spending is the only thing that might light the fuse on bringing a salary cap and salary floor into the sport.

It’s true, it’s true. Trust me …
 
I would love to hear from the Giants or anyone in the know what Correa’s medical issue from the physical was, by the way.

It’s true, it’s true. Trust me …
 
Does anyone remember something like this happening, ever? A team and free agent announce a huge deal, and then the team balks for a medical reason, and the player goes elsewhere for a different long term deal. Blew my mind when I heard this Correa thing.

And yes, the Mets are out of their minds. In addition to crazy spending on FA, the extension they gave Nimmo was ridiculous. They did not sign DeGrom, supposedly for injury concerns, then take on Correa? They already have a better SS in Lindor, by the way. This is like the Jeter / A-Rod Yankees.

While I'd love to see the Mets crash and burn, I sort of agree with AEW's point above. Maybe if they buy the championships the MLB will enact change.
 
wolves82 said:
Does anyone remember something like this happening, ever? A team and free agent announce a huge deal, and then the team balks for a medical reason, and the player goes elsewhere for a different long term deal. Blew my mind when I heard this Correa thing.

And yes, the Mets are out of their minds. In addition to crazy spending on FA, the extension they gave Nimmo was ridiculous. They did not sign DeGrom, supposedly for injury concerns, then take on Correa? They already have a better SS in Lindor, by the way. This is like the Jeter / A-Rod Yankees.

While I'd love to see the Mets crash and burn, I sort of agree with AEW's point above. Maybe if they buy the championships the MLB will enact change.
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Player's union is too strong for that change.

Unless you want to lock them out for an extended period of time.
 
OldSoulon said:
Player's union is too strong for that change.

Unless you want to lock them out for an extended period of time.
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My contention is that while the players union would not like a hard salary cap. they would LOVE a salary floor. Overall there would be more players making more money if there were a floor, because all of the cheapskate owners would have to spend up to the floor.

I think a deal could be made. Players Union might agree to a hard salary cap that adjusts every year based on revenue, with a hard floor at something like 70% of the cap. Very similar to the NFL, but in the NFL the floor is 90% of cap. So an MLB hard cap of 240 Million means a floor of 168 million at 70%. The owners are the ones who would not want this.

So that is where the negotiation is - on the floor percentage. Even if it is 60%, that is a floor of $144 M.

Imagine how much better baseball would be with some salary parity. Come on MLB, make it happen. Yeah, right.
 
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