Major League Baseball Free Agency is Broken, but Can be Fixed [OPINION]

Since the last collective bargaining agreement (CBA) took place between the players union and the MLB free agency has sucked. Top free agents wait to sign until February, with Bryce Harper, one of the biggest stars in the game, signing in March.

Teams had to wait four months just to know what their teams will look like, and that is an absolute joke. The NFL has arguably the best free agency in sports with players flying off the board the day before signing can officially take place.

Yet MLB has for the last two free agencies been basically worthless. This year is going to be more of the same. Free agency started Nov. 4, for big named players on Nov. 14, and one player has signed. One goddamn player signed in a week, and he is a relief pitcher at that.

What is the root of the problem and how can we fix it? I’m glad you asked commissioner Rob Manfred, not that I think you actually will because that would be too pro fan and player, but whatever this is my rhetorical argument.  

Anyways, Robert, the root of your problem is tanking in baseball and the fucking qualifying offer. You have to get rid of the qualifying offer, and for the love of God do something about how many 100 lose teams there are.

Right now, baseball has a system in which players are incentivized not to leave the team they play for, pretty heavily actually, and teams are incentivized not to try to sign top free agents. You know, players that could help their teams out of the divisional dumpster and end a perpetual cycle of try to win it all, fail, tank for draft picks, and repeat.

When the qualifying offer was instituted 2012 there was an immediate impact in free agency. No player accepted the qualifying offer the first year because weirdly enough players like moving around and seeing if the grass is greener elsewhere. Weird.

The basic premise of the qualifying offer is that a player can be offered a one-year $17.8 million deal to stay with their current team. That offer is either ludicrously low for top talent, or stupidly high for others. So top talent turns it down because some can earn nearly twice that on the open market, and lower production players will accept it because… that’s a shit load of money.

What is the downside and why is this a problem? Because MLB teams love their draft picks. If a team signs a player that turned down a qualifying offer, then that team needs to forfeit their third highest draft pick.

What is the big deal about losing a not first round pick? Honestly? I have no idea. 1000 baseball players are chosen every draft, and plenty of first round picks don’t pan out in baseball let alone third or fourth round picks.

Teams that see their window to win closing ship every good player out of town, and go after that first overall pick like they think it will make their team better instantly. For those that don’t know baseball, that line of thinking is wrong. Players drafted in 2019 are not going to see a big-league field for at least two years, and most won’t see the field for four or five years.

So, teams refuse to sign players that would immediately improve their team because they don’t want to win. Why is that so bad? If that is your honest question, then I cannot help you.

There have been record numbers of 100 lose teams in recent history. With that level of suck fans don’t go to games and the narrative of the sport being boring gets perpetuated by the people actively trying to convince people it is anything but boring.

What could help that? Gee, I don’t know. Sign some talent in a system designed to not lock players to one team for their entire career unless the player wanted to be tied down.

This is a flawed system that actively penalizes players for being good players and wanting to move.  Get it the hell out of here, and take Manfred while you’re at it.