MLB Free Agency is Broken
The fact that Craig Kimbrel has not been signed yet is another sign that free agency is broken. Teams are making an increasing amount of revenue, more money than ever in the history of the game and they are still not willing to pay to get the best reliever in the game.
Before anyone even tries to say that Kimbrel isn’t the best, look at his stats. Even Mo was not this good through 9 seasons. If he cannot get a deal that equals or surpasses Chapman and Jansen then the system is not working. In the past teams would have been falling all over themselves to sign him. Now he is unsigned in the 2nd week in March.
Changes need to be made to the free agency and arbitration model being used and they need to be made before 2022 or you can be sure that by then the players who are already saying that a strike is a foregone conclusion, may take it upon themselves to make an even bolder move and challenge baseball antitrust waiver in court.
Signing Kimbrel now won’t change the bad feelings between ever richer owners and the players that are getting a smaller and smaller cut of the revenue that the players produce. what can is the owners stepping up to the table and offering changes that give players free agency sooner, that revamps the arbitration process, and that ends the service time manipulation that is robbing fans of seeing the best young players sooner.
That is my take. What do you think.
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