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MLB free agency: are certain owners just being jerks?!

By Benjamin Chase

10 September 2014: Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) stands on the mound after surrendering a home run to Washington Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper (34) at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. where the Atlanta Braves defeated the Washington Nationals, 6-2. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images)
10 September 2014: Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) stands on the mound after surrendering a home run to Washington Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper (34) at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. where the Atlanta Braves defeated the Washington Nationals, 6-2. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images) /
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MLB free agency
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 22: Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. and Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark speak during a press conference before Game 3 of the Championship Round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic between Team USA and Team Puerto Rico on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

Real talk

Yet, what do the Nationals and Red Sox receive? The 140th draft slot was worth approximately $380,000 in bonus pool money last season, which is hardly enough to do any real movement in negotiating with top draft picks.

Heck, for the Washington Nationals, they’ve already lost three times that amount in draft funds by signing Corbin, so it’s not a draft pool issue for them at all.

So what is it?

It’s really quite easy, and it’s been a huge issue this offseason and throughout the last few CBA negotiations.

Essentially, the teams have tagged these elite free agents and significantly impacted the cost to sign them. That hurts the players’ markets, even when the resulting payout to the team is minimal. So it’s absolutely a power play.

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Tony Clark and those that negotiated on behalf of the players in the last CBA negotiations were certainly swindled by the owners, and it’s cost the players significantly, leading to what will almost certainly be a lengthy and disturbing labor stoppage coming in 2021.

However, putting these rules into place was intended to really make it worthless to a team in the situation of the Nationals and Red Sox this year to place a qualifying offer on their player. The way that these new qualifying offer rules were written was to help players avoid having the tag burden their trip through free agency.

Instead, these two organizations have shown their disdain for the players by exercising nothing but a pure power play, obviously violating the intent of these new rules. The ONLY reason that they can possibly justify the qualifying offer within their front office is the knowledge that they would depress their player’s market and hope to sign the player for a discount.

Next. Top 10 fantasy SS for 2019. dark

We as baseball fans have been hearing throughout MLB free agency this offseason how frustrated players are getting. When teams are making moves that don’t truly benefit them and only act as a way to suppress their market, it’s no wonder the players are so incredibly frustrated.

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