There are a boatload of unsigned free agents this offseason. There are many people to blame for this phenomenon. First, super agent Scott Boras is known for being the greediest agent in baseball. Two, Gm’s are smarter in 2018 and have embraced the full-scale analytics model that sides with younger players. Three, all the big market teams are saving up their cap for the Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, and Manny Machado offseason a year from now. Nevertheless, the unsigned players need to start finding homes because spring training is about to begin.
Respected writer Tim Brown of Yahoo reports that unsigned free agents will be able to participate in spring training despite being unsigned.
“The baseball players’ union is scouting sites and making preliminary arrangements to conduct its own spring training for as many as 100 unsigned free agents, sources said Wednesday . . . The IMG baseball academy in Bradenton, Florida, was believed to be among at least three options. The union also is identifying coaches and other personnel to staff the facility.”
The last time the union tried to put together a similar sort of set up, the players revolted in 1985 beginning on a year-long strike. Too bad for the players because they just signed a new CBA this year. There are close to 100 big names are unsigned free agents so they need to get a clue and start signing because Spring Training starts this upcoming week.
Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to institute a pitch clock but with so many unsigned players, there isn’t a chance something so radical in the game gets approved. Not sure why the pitch clock is such a big issue. Long baseball games aren’t the issue, reaching out to the younger generation of fans is the real issue, a failure in today’s game.
