MLB free agents: When millionaires realize they’re the dregs
By Rick Soisson
MLB free agents not signed by now all fall into one odd category — the multi-millionaire who is too expensive at too young an age.
The market for MLB free agents this passing winter, as everyone knows, has been considerably livelier than last year’s market. At this time last year, the Phillies still hadn’t signed Bryce Harper. This winter, Harper has been in Spring Training camp for a while now, showing off his Phanatic doll, and the Phillies stopped signing people around Dec. 15 after a couple of big names were acquired.
This winter all the “important” players floating freely have found homes, and this is especially so among pitchers who could be considered starters.
In fact, when the Yankees lost Luis Severino Feb. 25 to planned Tommy John surgery, New York Daily News writer Kristie Ackert penned this line, “Free agent starters still not signed include Clay Buchholz, Andrew Cashner, Jason Vargas, and Matt Harvey.”
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Actually, Cashner is sort of being marketed as a reliever, but whatever. Since he isn’t signed, if the Yankees called and offered him a contract to start, it’s very likely the 57-97 lifetime pitcher would imagine he’d died painlessly and gone to heaven.
That isn’t the point here. It’s more that those four lonely names prompted a meditation on unemployed young multi-millionaires. (Don’t worry, we’re not going to veer into Bernie Sanders territory.)