I have read some articles lately regarding MLB players and the lack of Free Agent signings this offseason. Most acticals state the reasons being either there are teams trying to get under the luxury-cap threshold to reset penalties, or that there are teams that have already decided to tank the upcoming season. To me, the 1st reason makes business sense. Why put your team in a position to pay a huge tax if you don’t need to. As far as the 2nd reason, that teams are purposely tanking, I don’t buy it. When was it decided that if you don’t give huge salaries to marginal players, that you are tanking the season and don’t care about winning.
Everybody should have seen this coming. There was no way the salaries being give out the past 5 – 10 years were sustainable. Teams started looking at the contracts given to Albert Pujols, Giancarlo Stanton, David Price, etc., and realized they were not getting a good return on investment. They also looked at the way the last few World Series winners (Royals, Cubs, Astros) were built and saw that it really makes no sense to dish out huge contracts for multiple years.
I say instead of complaining about the owners, we should be questioning the attitude of some of the players who are thinking of holding out unless they get every last penny. I understand that the owners need to spend money to be competitive (and those that don’t would bother me as a fan), but the players need to realize that the game will survive without them, and they should be grateful for the opportunity to make a living playing baseball. Time are changing everywhere, and the players need to realize they don’t just automatically get a huge salary increase once they become a free agent.
Now I’m sure some players will end up getting signed to big money contracts before the season starts, while others will reluctantly take a few million less than they wanted, and the 2018 MLB season will go on as always. But at the end of the season, I don’t want to hear from angry fans, or read any more articles on tanking when the teams that give in and sign these players are watching from home, while the teams that don’t spend the big bucks, but had a plan and stuck with it are playing in the postseason.
AverageAndy 