I have never seen an offseason in major league baseball where so many fine free agents basically have to beg for teams to sign them. I am used to 5 to 10 teams all fighting for a single free agent, driving up the price, leading to very modest 252 million dollar contracts. After the top free agents were signed early in the winter, by the yankees of course, the rest of the free agent market has been stagnant to the point that i believe many of our favorite baseball players may be out of jobs next year. To give you an idea of the last few years of signing, we have people like carlos silva, kyle lohse, gil meche, and the like signing 7 figure per year deals. And these guys range from average to extremely pathetic. Last year, we only saw one real free agent casualty as kenny lofton decided to not play as opposed to accept a minor league deal. This year, i believe we will have 10 to 20 kenny loftons.
Despite what Scott Boris may say about the recession not affecting the MLB, he's the greediest agent of all time, it certainly is. Established major league talent such Abreu, Dunn, Lowe, Garland, Glaving, Thomas, Hudson, Pudge, Kent, Griffey, and even the superhuman manny ramirez are finding it difficult to get a contract a 10 year veteran deserves. These guys will end up playing somewhere, but at a greatly reduced price. Prior years saw players such as carlos lee, soriano, vernon wells, alexis rios, chase utley, JD Drew absolutely break the bank on free agent deals. Similar talent in the form of Dunn and Bradley and Burrell are lucky to receive the type of money the immortal Gary Matthews JR is making. Going young means going cheap and that is what 29 teams in baseball are doing. When the cubs need to let go true cubs in Wood and Derosa to save a couple million dollars, you know things are not the same and wont be for a while.
It's going to be sad seeing guys like garciappara, vidro, edmonds, anderson, and even richie sexson flipping burgers next year at your local wendy's. ummm, wendy's!
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