MLB: The Solution to Tanking and the Free Agency Crisis
What’s driving MLB’s flurry of contract extensions. Also, let’s propose a solution that will END tanking in baseball while solving the Free Agency Crisis.
Earlier this year, the New York Yankees agreed to a deal with their soon-to-be Free Agent CF Aaron Hicks to a seven-year contract extension.
At first, many were confused; why would the Yankees give a player who has never been an All-Star and is entering his age 29 season- a seven-year extension? They already have a big-time outfielder locked in for the next nine years in Giancarlo Stanton, in addition to (face of the franchise) Aaron Judge whom you can be sure that the Yankees will be extending, and now, all of a sudden, you’ve locked in three out of four of your outfielders (including DH) for the next five-plus years!
That was the second extension the Yankees have inked in the last month; they gave Luis Severino, (who is currently on the IL…) whom they hope will be a front of the rotation guy for years to come, a 4 years/40 million dollar extension. That gives the Yankees an extra year of control on their young hurler.
The above-mentioned Severino deal was modeled after the contract extension of Philadelphia Phillies 25-year-old ace, Aaron Nola. Nola, who had a terrific 2018 campaign and finished third in the National League Cy Young Award voting, had the highest WAR for a Starting Pitcher. The Phillies gave the young righty a four year/45 million dollar extension which similar to the Severino deal, grants them an extra year of control.
Hicks, Nola, and Severino are just a few examples of players whose teams tried to avoid free agency, if not for only one more year- and as was evident in this year’s off-season, a single season by a starting pitcher is a very big deal. The New York Yankees, who were the favorites to land Arizona Diamondbacks lefty Patrick Corbin, would not offer more than five years for what was commonly regarded as the best starting pitcher on the market. Corbin would then go on to sign with the Washington Nationals on a six-year deal.
But these three are not alone; Jose Altuve, Whit Merrifield, Eugenio Suarez, Paul DeJong, Ronald Acuna, and Blake Snell, are a few more examples of teams taking a leap of faith and signing these players to 4+ years, just so they gain a few extra years of control. Eloy Jimenez and Scott Kingery received extensions before they even had a single at-bat!
Why would teams be willing to give extensions now when they still have multiple years of control (Besides for Hicks who is a free agent after the 2019 season) and have the capability to extend later?
Why Teams are Willing to Give Extentions
The past two off-seasons have been notoriously slow and much more club-friendly than player-friendly. Players who are 31+ years old are having a hard time finding more than two years on a contract, and the two biggest names this off-season, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, (both of whom are 26-years old) only got signed in the middle of spring training!
Unfortunately for the players though, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which was agreed to by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), is not very player-friendly and does not give teams incentive to want to spend- and on top of that, the MLB penalizes the teams that DO spend by having a luxury tax and limiting their spending.
The next CBA is in December 2021, during which, the players are likely going to demand that the luxury tax be raised considerably and possibly that the MLB penalize teams that either doesn’t spend a minimum amount of money or win the minimum amount of games.
Once that happens, the average contract (and by default the massive ones) will be increased, possibly significantly for some of baseball’s biggest stars like Francisco Lindor, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger. These players are going to seek upwards of 400 million dollar deals. So, teams like The Yankees, Phillies, Braves, and Reds are trying to lock up their young stars before the CBA so they don’t have to pay what would likely be a higher average salary and are instead paying less than the going rate now.
Expect more teams to start locking up their young stars to long term contracts.
Look for players like Christian Yelich and Kris Bryant to be the next ones to get long term extensions in the near future.
Solving Free Agency in MLB
The MLB this year has historically bad teams, with the Orioles, Tigers and Royals all with a winning percentage of under .330 with Baltimore having the worst record in baseball winning only 27 out of their first 89 games… 21 qualifying hitters have higher a batting average than the Orioles’ winning percentage!
But are these teams losing on purpose?
The Miami Marlins started the notorious ‘2018 sell-off’ during which the Marlins would ship away reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, future NL MVP Christian Yelich, and All-Stars Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna. New part-owner Derek Jeter started trading away all of the big money players, and anyone who would save money on the payroll while also amassing some prospects.
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The Marlins were last in attendance in the MLB, averaging less than 10,000 fans per game, which is more than 6000 less than the next team.
In 2017, the Marlins finished in 2nd place in their division. Their record at the end of the 2018 season was 63-98 and they finished last in the NL…
So how could the MLB fix this and make teams WANT to win?
The MLB has a Luxury Tax, i.e a soft salary cap which limits the big market teams from completely buying out the market, but if the small market teams don’t want to spend, it doesn’t matter what the cap is. I believe that the MLB should implement a required Minimum Spending Mandate.
By setting a ‘Spending Minimum’, there will be a more equal balance in the MLB because bad teams like the Marlins and Blue Jays will have to sign one or two high-end stars. Bringing stars to your team will, in turn, bring more fans to the games.
Furthermore, the MLBPA will be all for it as will result in more players getting paid more money.
In addition, this would extend veteran stars time in the league as teams will be willing to pay short term, heavily bloated contracts.
Next. Should MLB Look To Mic Players More Often. dark
BOOM!
(*Drops the mic*)