MLBPA reportedly taking spring training into its own hands for unsigned players
During strikes and lockouts, players who are unable to workout at their team’s facilities will often do workouts on their own, and even organize informal camps with other players to stay in shape for when its time to go back to work.
The Major League Baseball Players Association is doing this with its unemployed players, organizing a spring training camp for unsigned free agents in order to keep them in shape, fit and marketable for when they’re once again employed.
Trouble is, there’s no lockout or strike going on. These are guys who haven’t been signed to new contracts. They’re players without a team.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports says the initiative’s being met with mixed levels of success.
Been told the union is considering starting a camp as soon as Tuesday — the day pitchers and catchers report to some team sites. Some prominent players still have not been informed, and it’s unclear just how many would participate. One free agent told me he’d rather stay home. https://t.co/CSFEUlmr2Y
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 8, 2018
It’s a worthwhile question. Why bother working out when teams are too busy paying attention to what the guys they invited to camp are doing to pay attention to what a bunch of guys they had every chance to extend a contract offer to but chose not to are doing in what is essentially like the kids on the sandlot who don’t get picked so they play their own game nobody watches?
The camp brings to mind the infamous “Camp Collusion,” set up by the union in 1995 when MLB decided to open the season with scab players after the latter half of the 1994 season — including the World Series — was wiped out by a strike.
But this is not 1995. There has been labor peace in baseball ever since that woeful chapter in baseball history. The current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t expire until 2021.
The reason for the camp and the general ill will from the players’ union is the belief, articulated by union leader Tony Clark, that there is “a significant number of teams…engaged in a race to the bottom,” referring to many small-market teams crying poverty, shrinking the overall talent pool for star players since the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers aren’t dishing out big money contracts they way they once did.
Clark also said the stagnant market is “a fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and threatens the very integrity of our game.”
Clark did, however, stop short of outright accusing the owners of collusion. When asked whether he believed owners were acting collectively to throttle the market and thereby drive down salaries, Clark flatly said “no.”
When asked what the owners should do about all the players, quite a few of them with unquestioned talent and value to teams, Clark was less kind.
“That is a good question for [commissioner] Rob Manfred to be asked,” Clark said. “We’re all a part of the industry. There are a historic number of free agents available. These guys can’t make offers to themselves. There must be some level of engagement. There are a significant number of players who aren’t weighing any offers or opportunities.”
Manfred, in a statement issued Tuesday, seemed to put the onus back on agents for the stagnant market.
“It is common at this point in the calendar to have large numbers of free agents unsigned,” Manfred said. “What is uncommon is to have some of the best free agents sitting unsigned even though they have substantial offers, some in nine figures. It is the responsibility of players’ agents to value their clients in a constantly changing free agent market based on factors such as positional demand, advanced analytics, and the impact of the new Basic Agreement.
“To lay responsibility on the clubs for the failure of some agents to accurately assess the market is unfair, unwarranted, and inflammatory.”
Manfred’s statement also emphasized that MLB teams “are committed to winning.”
Major League Baseball issued the following statement today in response to the comments made by MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark: pic.twitter.com/JE2AFRpEDZ
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) February 6, 2018
Of course, Miami Marlins fans may dispute that point.
Major League Baseball’s revenues are at an all-time high, so teams claiming they are unable to afford the services of quality players raises doubt among fans, especially if fans believe their favorite team is only a player or two away from competing for a World Series title.
At the same time, nothing kills a team’s competitive ability to improve faster than being bogged down with big-money contracts on aging players who’ve been sidelined by injuries and/or have seen their production decline and their contracts are impossible to trade.
The stagnant free agent market has exposed some cracks in the foundation of baseball’s current labor agreement. You can bet players will draw a hard line in the sand at the next negotiating session if free agents experience another offseason like this.
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