Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark took a jab at teams on Tuesday, claiming their inactivity in the market this offseason “a race to the bottom.” He also said its “fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and threatens the very integrity of our game.”
In what has been one of the slower moving offseasons in recent history, tension has built between agents and ownership, especially since there are over 100 free agents that remain unsigned.
“Pitchers and catchers will report to camps in Florida and Arizona in one week,” Clark said. “A record number of talented free agents remain unemployed in an industry where revenues and franchise values are at record highs.
“Spring training has always been associated with hope for a new season. This year a significant number of teams are engaged in a race to the bottom. This conduct is a fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and threatens the very integrity of our game.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred fired back to Clark’s comments in a statement, saying that ownership is committed to putting a winning product on the field.
“It is common at this point in the calendar to have large numbers of free agents unsigned,” he 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.”
There had been talks about a possible strike as several of the top free agents remain unsigned and as much as 13 teams remaining silent this winter, but those talks were dismissed as it would be “unlikely due to provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, and the most recent CBA – agreed upon in December 2016 and running through 2021 – further tilted the field toward owners thanks to luxury tax thresholds and penalties that disincentivize spending,” according to USA Today.
At the end of the day, with a week until pitchers and catchers, there is likely to be a flurry of moves. However, only time will tell how this will play out.
