Imagine this. Let's say you can't agree to terms with a team to avoid arbitration in your final year before becoming a free agent. Your case will go to arbitration, where both sides will present numbers and arguments to her three-person arbitration panel, who will decide which figure to award.
You're not a star and you're not without flaws, but you're definitely an MLB-level player and you've been a solid hitter throughout your career. The team proposed a figure of $6.55 million but lost, so his salary next season will be $6.9 million.
After one month, you will be discharged and cleared of unclaimed status and will be released. Oh, and thanks to a loophole in the collective bargaining agreement, she'll only be paid a fraction of the $6.9 million she just received from an arbitrator.
This is exactly what happened to J.D. Davis.
The San Francisco Giants should be praised for signing a star player like Matt Chapman. It's insane that they couldn't find a trade partner willing to pay a very reasonable amount for a player of Davis' consistent major league level talent.
The insanity gets even worse when the Giants abandon even trying after just a few days. Davis was placed on waivers Friday because there were no buyers on the trade market.
He went unclaimed, is fully healthy, will soon be 31 years old, has a career 114 WRC+, hit 18 home runs last season, had 5 OAAs defensively at 3B, has extensive experience at 1B, and is an OF He was released on Monday.
Apparently, no team with a clear corner bat need like the Seattle Mariners was willing to pay even arbitration-level prices to fill such a need on their roster.
Davis' contract was subject to an arbitration hearing rather than a negotiated contract, so it was never guaranteed by opening day. That means the Giants only have to pay Davis 30 days of severance. He currently owes San Francisco just $1.1 million, just 16% of the amount he received just a month ago.
Davis felt he was worth more than what the Giants were offering him, and when he decided to take the case to trial, he unknowingly risked losing almost all of his money, even though he ultimately won. It had been. It was only a matter of time before teams started exploiting this.
If you think this is ridiculous, welcome to the party.
This is the epitome of a nefarious offseason for MLB, where for 738 consecutive years the economics of the sport have dominated the conversation. Many teams that don't carry the Los Angeles Dodgers name give them some reason to be accused of simply being apathetic. Then again, no one wanted an affordable and convenient player.
The baseball season ended on November 1st with the Texas Rangers hoisting the World Series trophy, and MLB free agency officially began five days later. Since then, the NFL has seen the bulk of the regular season, the playoffs, and the Super Bowl come and go, as well as star players agreeing to deals and starting their own free agency period. Meanwhile, current National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell is not with the team.
Players like Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger were signed for far less than they probably wanted, and players at the top of the market were given unreasonable initial prices, but the team was assembled in just over two weeks. Snell wasn't the only one who couldn't do it. It's been available since the first day it opened.
Tommy Pham, Adam Duvall, Michael Lorenzen, Michael A. Taylor, J.D. Martinez and Brandon Belt are all still looking for roster spots. Valuable players who have no off-field issues and could probably be acquired at a reasonable price, but teams in need keep jumping into MiLB contract territory to pay bargain prices for broken toys and obsolete items. There is.
No other major American sport has these problems, at least not to this extent. MLB owners seem to have forgotten that their business is one of entertainment, not cost-cutting.
Most of the owners are old men and, despite having vast fortunes, are not particularly savvy businessmen and have no idea how to wisely spend or invest the vast fortunes often left by their fathers. i don't know.
They provide inferior products to paying customers, cry pitifully and threaten to move cities when fans don't show up to see substandard performances.
Report from The Athletic This offseason, when former Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neil Huntington asked for much-needed funds to renovate the Pirates' spring training site in Bradenton, owner Bob Nutting , detailed that she told him that she had all the funds she needed and would be able to use them immediately. The money will be made from the baseball operating budget. In the end, the necessary funds were depleted from players' salaries over several years.
Bob doesn't have the business know-how to know that making such a capital investment will not only increase the value of his most valuable business asset, valued at $1.32 billion by Forbes magazine. (in keeping with the value of the print media empire his family owns) *only* hundreds of millions), but also contributes to the success of the product in the field. It was a great business opportunity, but he balked.
Bob and other owners like him clearly see no value in signing the aforementioned players.
It is no longer reasonable for this type of behavior to continue across MLB. For a while, it wasn't reasonable. MLB faces more than just big economic and competitive balance issues. You are facing a bad business problem.
Only those who create the problem themselves have enough power to solve it.
No more mincing words, no more making excuses for how high the market was, prices are falling, and opening day is approaching. It's not just a question of cheapness, it's a question of ability.
