Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who call Mr. Met their soulmate.
Curious question. Let’s say the guidelines for rookie contracts and arb eligibility change with the new CBA. Maybe we eliminate super 2 status, or shorten the duration of rookie contracts or arb eligibility. Does the change impact current arb eligible players and those under rookie contracts or are they grandfathered in with the old rules?
Obviously, those will be Line and Verse items with a New CBA. It affexts hundreds of Players Union Members who fall in the category you describe, so I would think “New Rules” would apply to those guys already in the Union.
Let hope the MLBPA aims to shore up the money issue by getting more to the younger players, and abandon the notion of making “free agency” a thing with rules that require players to be hired.
Teams invest a ton in development so I would not limit the control years. I would continue to be sure league minimum remains strong (I mean, where else does a 20 yo make $500,000?), but extend the arbitration years. Furthermore arbitration should not be based on service time aggregates, but performance. This would get players in on the payday when they are performing. Ownership and MLB cant limit salaries on the youth *and* tell people older than 30 they have no value at free agency. By making arb another year and making it performance based will mean more money into the players hands early on. I also would give special treatment for pre-arb award winners, like RoY or any other award. Its ridiculous that a RoY would end up near league minimum the next season.
Belly aching about “free agency” drives me mad. MLBPA wanted this to be a free market. Well in a free market, performance and demand determine who gets what. It was fine when bloated contracts to aging stars were offset by steroid doping, but it is clear by 35 the decline is precipitous. I also have zero appreciation for Harper saying I will only sign a long-term deal. Thats not “free” agency. He is of course free to say that, but teams are equally free to say, no thanks.
Simpliest way to get more money paid to younger players would be to start arbitration a year early, so instead of 3 years for arb it would be 2. Plus instead of super 2 it would be super 1. And then for the arbitration years, the money would be more and say by the last 2 years you would be paying pretty much market value.
So for example – David Price signed only 1 year deals during his 4 arb years which were at 4.35, 10.1, 14, and 19.75 could instead be buffed by 60% to 7, 16, 22.5, and 32. That’s a respectable 77 mil over those 4 years compared to the 48 he got. Plus he would have been eligible for arb a year earlier which he could have gotten say 4 mil that year.
The team would still retain 6 years of control and continue to stop paying old Free agents and the younger guys would get money earlier and not have to worry about getting that one big deal come free agency.
I agree but will ownership do this, or what will they demand in return? I also think the players will be looking for more than this. This could easily wind up being confrontational.
They wouldn’t need to to concede anything as the union shouldn’t expect to payrolls to go up, but rather just a reallocation of funds.
If a team currently has a $100 mil payroll and spends $40 mil on pre-FA players and $60 mil on FA players, the new allocation would be $60 mil to pre-FA players and $40 mil to FA.
Basically, the union would be saying “Look, you can continue the trend of spending less on older FAs but you need to start paying the younger guys better so they’re not ticked off that they don’t get a massive payday when they hit FA at age 30+”
I have a devil’s advocate thought about Bryce and Manny. For all we know they’ve been offered very generous deals but not by their first choice teams. This happens in the NBA all the time where the stars dictate where they play. That the Dodgers signed Pollack and the Yankees signed LaMeihu and Tulo really botched up their plans.
On the CBA topic I have one new rule I’d like to see. As long as there is revenue sharing there should be a payroll floor that’s, say, half the amount of the luxe tax threshold. That way teams like the Rays, Pirates, A’s et al would spend just a bit more, giving their fans more reason to come out to the park and giving more options to free agents.
Free agency needs to start earlier. Teams are paying guys for what they did for other teams in their 20s and rewarding them in recline years. Need to reverse the cycle.hockey to me has it right. You get paid this s much for three years then you are free agent and your original team can match it.
Here’s the latest podcast with Michael Salfino, who now writes for The Athletic, along with contributing spots with the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! Sports
https://lennymelnickfantasysports.com/podcasts/mets360/mets-360-michael-salfino/
Salfino is a great guest – he knows his stuff and he obviously enjoys being on the air.