2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

[ShowTyme15]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

****ing Boras... He's bad for baseball.

It's not just Boras. The competitive balance tax is hindering the FA process and trades right now.

[redsox4evur]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

I think the players he represents would beg to differ.

There is no salary cap, I personally have no problem with him going out of his way for his clients. Seems like an agent I would want on my side.

Yep Boras is probably the best agent in the MLB. He rarely lets his clients take that early long term contract that guys like Longoria (didn't work out for Longo, IMO), Jon Singleton (worked out for Singleton so far, IMO), etc have signed either just before arbitration or during it. He is about maximizing what his clients get paid (the bare minimum of what an agent is supposed to do, IMO).

[Speedy]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

It's not just Boras. The competitive balance tax is hindering the FA process and trades right now.

Yeah, it's essentially acting like a salary cap.

[jvalverde88]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

I think the players he represents would beg to differ.

There is no salary cap, I personally have no problem with him going out of his way for his clients. Seems like an agent I would want on my side.

A Scott Boras client every time someone talks bad about him.

[The Kid 24]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

I think the players he represents would beg to differ.

There is no salary cap, I personally have no problem with him going out of his way for his clients. Seems like an agent I would want on my side.

Yep I get it and understand... I'm just annoyed this offseason has been a drag so far.

I just brought him up cuz he represents a lot of the big FAs... That's all.

[kenp86]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

So since everything is at a stand still, wheres everyone think Machado and Harper will land next year?

[SPTO]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

I think one other factor in the slowness of the market is the type of front office that are running baseball teams these days. They're all generally MBA types between the ages of 34 and their mid 50s with the EXACT same kind of philosophy on how to build a team. there are certainly some outliers (Dave Dombrowski is the most obvious but there are others like Brian Sabean) but it's not enough to change the monolithic group think that we're seeing. It's like every front office is working off of the same playbook.

[Speedy]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

So since everything is at a stand still, wheres everyone think Machado and Harper will land next year?

I think Bryce stays put.

[countryboy]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

So since everything is at a stand still, wheres everyone think Machado and Harper will land next year?

Japan.

In a surprising turn of events, top MLB talent is going to start being posted to play in Japan's Nippon Pacific League.

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

So since everything is at a stand still, wheres everyone think Machado and Harper will land next year?

Machado who knows. Harper Cubs.

[kenp86]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

Harper comes down to Cubs and Yanks. Think he goes Cubs and say Machado goes to Yanks. DiDi goes to 2nd and Torres to 3rd

[Majingir]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

It's like every front office is working off of the same playbook.

Maybe they also hacked the Astros lol


But I'm sure for most part, GMs getting more calculated in how they spend money. Look at David price situation a few years ago. How many teams were really in hunt for him? Jays didn't bother because they knew it'd be ridiculous.

And last year, market was dead on Bautista and Encarnacion took much less because of real bad market reading by his agent.

GMs know what type of guys they want and how much they want to spend and seem less interested in playing games with agents.

Maybe it could start being more like hockey where teams heavily build from within and eventually we get to a point where we rarely see huge names hit the market.

[Sportsforever]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

At the end of the day, GM's are not "required" to sign a FA. As FA prices have continued to climb, the FA turns into not such a great deal. Look how many times we see a team sign a big FA to a huge contract, only to be trying to get out from under said contract within 2-3 years. Generally in FA you are paying a player for what he HAS done, not what he WILL do. GM's are finally realizing that's a stupid move. It might when the winter PR stuff, but at the end of the day it doesn't make your team better.

Players, the union, the agents, even the fans might complain about the lack of signings, but really, given where everything has gone the last few years, I don't know that I would sign anyone to these type of prices either. I mean, really...$200M for JD Martinez? Based on 2 hot months? No thanks...$200M for Jake Arrieta? Not worth it...

I can see shelling out that kind of money for players like Trout/Harper/Machado, etc, who will still be young AND have a proven track record (although I do think the Harper contract talk is ridiculous), but not for any player we see on the market right now.

[SPTO]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

Maybe it could start being more like hockey where teams heavily build from within and eventually we get to a point where we rarely see huge names hit the market.

This point was brought up by SI's Ben Reiter when they were talking about this on MLB-N's Baseball Now program yesterday. There does seem to be a recency bias of staying away from building through free agency because the last few World Series champions (and some of the big contenders) built from the ground up and added some free agent pieces but nothing mind blowing.

As money99 and I have been saying around these parts lately MLB is looking more and more like the NHL landscape when it comes to how teams build by locking up their young commodities and being very picky about what they do in free agency. Interestingly, in that context it seems GMs have gone the route of valuing relievers so much that they're making more money now than most starting pitchers. Historically relievers have been hit or miss from year to year unless you're one of the elite. The last few years has broken that axiom in baseball but if it ever reverts back to the way it used to be some of these contracts are going to look VERY ugly soon.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: 2017-2018 MLB Hot Stove Thread

Something I was wondering is, has the average age in the majors gone down in comparison to the last few decades? I have no idea, I just feel like I can't remember so many young players coming up and being great as often as it seems they are now.

If that's the case, I wonder if there's just more prearbitration talent to be used so teams don't have to go to the market so much. Like obviously for us, the plan was always just to get rid of our big contracts so we could sign guys to new ones. It just so happens that now, we've gotten one through trade and have a young star who doesn't need to get paid for a little while, so we don't need to address that via free agency necessarily. But we haven't locked up any of our young talent. I look at the Red Sox, they don't have Mookie, Xander, Benintendi, most of their guys signed to long term deals because it just hasn't gotten to be their time. So I don't know if the young guys are being locked up so much as maybe there's just a transition period from one era to the next...plus a lot of teams are cheap.

The story in the NFL a few years back was that the rookie cap was working backwards, making it so that instead of helping the veterans, it was hurting them because why sign an old guy when I can draft a young guy at a cheap price and have him for 4 years? Maybe it's the same thing here in a way.