Next week, pitchers and catchers will report to spring training. By this time, usually most of the league’s free agents have been signed. It’s been both an extremely lucrative or unbearably unfortunate offseason for these players. While 216 players originally filed for free agency, about a third still don’t have a job. Rather than have these players rot at home while their colleagues get ready to go, the MLBPA will decide next week whether to open a training camp for its free agents.
With dozens of players still unsigned, the union is expected to decide within one week whether to organize a training camp of its own, with the Dodgers’ abandoned spring home in Florida among the sites under consideration.
This would not be a first. The union organized a similar camp in 1995, with hundreds of free agents scrambling for jobs following a strike settlement.
What baseball’s collective bargaining agreement means is that teams cannot act in concert to set or depress the market, no matter how rough the economy.
The sport generated a record $6.5 billion in revenue last year, much of it insulated from the recession via long-term deals for broadcast rights, luxury seating and advertisements.
The union isn’t sure how the economic slump can fully account for so many players out of work so close to spring training. For now, the union is neither alleging collusion nor ruling it out.
Stewart smells something fishy, citing two stars he does not represent. Consider Sheets, for instance, who had an injury last season but still pitched 198 innings and made his fourth All-Star team at age 29.
“I don’t see any reason why guys like Ben Sheets and Orlando Hudson would still be out there,” Stewart said. “They’re quality players.”
That would be something else. To watch this mixture of free agents playing together would be interesting to say the least. They’d be vying for a job, essentially. As it stands, this is the closest that MLB can get to pick-up baseball.
The article doesn’t state that the players are obligated to go this camp. Still, the dedicated ones will show up. It’s almost as if these guys are trying out for their high school team. Each individual has something to prove. The big name guys need to convince the scouts, GMs, and owners that they still have what it takes to earn a bulky contract, while the lesser-known players are just trying to make their case for any contract.
I think it’s obvious what’s going to happen, though. Mark Cuban is going to show up and offer every player a deal in hopes of starting his own team. He’ll take this proposition to Bud Selig. Since the remaining 70 or so free agents would suddenly have a job playing for the upstart Dallas Cubans, Selig would suddenly be out of a bind and have to agree.
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