MLB free agents: When millionaires realize they’re the dregs

By Rick Soisson | Feb 27, 2020

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 22: Matt Harvey #33 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim walks to the dugout after allowing a solo homerun to Luke Voit #45 of the New York Yankees during the first inning of a game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 22, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)

(Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images) /

When millionaires realize they’re the dregs

The Clay Buchholz Example

Every year there are a few or, some years, more of them – they’re like the clockwork figurines on old cuckoo clocks. They just show up. Some are or were pretty good, some were pretty bad by MLB standards (and tend to retire), and some are just “mediocre enough” to be in MLB limbo for a while.

And all of them show up at this point in their mid-30s because they’re very, very expensive. Or they think they are. Or their agents do.

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Otherwise, how do you explain a guy like Clay Buchholz still being on the unsigned list of MLB free agents? Yes, Buchholz has battled injuries. He’s entering his age-35 season, and he had a shoulder injury last season that kept him out of the majors for three months.

However, in ancient days, well before Buchholz’s $12 million-plus salaries for three straight years starting when he turned 30, he would definitely have a job this season.

Look at his numbers. He’s certainly not the greatest pitcher ever to be listed among MLB free agents, but he’s has gone 90-69 with a sub-4.00 era in the AL, with a 17-7 season when he was 25 (for a third-place team) and a 7-2 season with a 2.01 ERA in 16 starts for Arizona as recently as 2018. Yes, that’s a truncated season, but goodness, back in the day as the saying goes, somebody would have hired him by now because “he knows how to win.”

Of course, the geniuses who run MLB clubs now might chuckle at this because of secret information about this player’s health, but I suspect the real reason he hasn’t been hired is because of (drumroll, please) his agent or agents.

That is to say, for Buchholz, somebody at something called ISE Baseball. Guys, ladies of ISE, get this dude a contract. He has said, “I feel like I’m capable of pitching as well as I did five or six years ago. It’s not about money. It’s about considering myself a major league pitcher.”

You people do work on commission, right? Buchholz took a $10.5 million drop in salary to pitch last year.

Clay Buchholz is still too expensive, seemingly, but he’s made over $60 million. Do you actually think he’s desperately over-valuing himself? I guess that could be since, right, he might think his salary should go up after posting a 6.58 ERA last season. It might be, however, that the guy just wants to pitch in the majors another year.