The MLB free agency threat: “A fight is brewing” among players

A “fight is brewing” in MLB free agency, and for all the wrong reasons.

MLB Free Agency is heating up and for all of the wrong reasons. OK, no baseball free agent actually seems to have said, publicly, “a fight is brewing.” That vague threat was made by Brodie Van Wagenen of CCA Baseball, a players’ agent. CAA’s clients have included Robinson Cano, Yoenis Cespedes, and Tim Tebow.

In a screed posted on Twitter, Van Wagenen also threatened a possible boycott of MLB spring training “if [owner] behavior doesn’t change.” Moreover, he instantly corrected his reading of player sentiment about the glacial, current free agent environment from “upset” to “outraged” in the space of two short sentences.

What was more interesting was the way Van Wagenen set the context of this unhappiness. He claimed that the players were “content” with the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement since the average MLB player salary had grown 23 percent between 2012 and ’17 (from $3.1 to $4.2 million). This was quite superior to the rate between 2007 and ’12, “just” 13.8 percent.

That is correct. In MLB terms Van Wagenen’s use of “just” regarding a 2.76 percent raise per year indicates “paltry.” Many worker-fans might agree that sort of increase is a bit lacking if that’s what they received annually. Those workers, however, apparently did not make $2.8 million in 2007 as the average player did. And never mind that vast swath of American workers didn’t get anything like a bump of 2.76 percent a year during the Great Recession.

It’s a good thing those raises took wing after 2012. But now: unhappiness.

Thus, the union of millionaires reappears, just as it did in 1994 when the average player salary was a microscopic $1,188,679.

(Note: Van Wagenen’s figures, used everywhere here except for the one directly above for ’94, don’t quite match up to the figures reported by the AP and CBS, which were based on a “survey.” Van Wagenen’s figures for 2007 and 2012 are $2.8 and $3.2 million. The Associated Press/CBS report $2.94 and $3.44 million for those years, respectively. It’s hard to tell whether that’s “agent math” at work or an “error” by the AP/CBS. But hey, what’s a $140,000 or $240,000 difference among clubhouse buddies? The first figure is merely equal to two excellent, probably white-collar salaries. The second is…well, not a quarter of a million, right?)

This Is a Capitalist System, Dummy

More from Call to the Pen

We all got the memo about the collapse of the Soviet Union. We live in a global capitalist society. An MLB player can demand what the market will bear. You would too if you had an 88-mph curve that falls off a table.

However, should Van Wagenen’s spring threat come to fruition, the MLB free agent and any supporting player should keep in mind the recent experience of the NFL? By one estimate revenue to the NFL’s TV partners could drop by $500 million from 2016 to ’17. This was a result of a 9.7% drop in viewership of professional football. The TV contracts for major sports more and more fuel player salaries since people who aren’t paid like pro athletes don’t go to as many games as they used to. They watch the games on TV.

Keep this in mind: This viewership drop did not result from a players’ strike. Part of it was merely a matter of a prominent politician calling some players “sons of bitches.” Additionally, a result of this drop in popularity has been, well, at least one “analysis” asserting the drop is partly the result of “bad football.”

Next: Phil Coke eyeing MLB return after stint in Japan

If the very well-paid MLB Free Agency players actually strike, how long will it be until we start to see think pieces on “bad baseball”? It says here the first will appear when fans don’t immediately flock to games between the recently striking Pirates and Reds, or the Orioles and Rays, or the White Sox and anybody, really.

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