fjk090852-7 wrote on Feb 12
th, 2023 at 11:16am:
I just looked at the remaining players listed on the MLB Trade Rumors site and there are several players such as Robbie Grossman, Michael Wacha, Tyler Naquin and others who are remain unsigned. Most of the remaining free agents are players in their 30s, and several have had good track records. I know we as fans cannot do much about the financial disparity in baseball, but it is getting to the point where the high end players get the large salaries, and then the remaining players are in the pre arbitration group. Many of the players in the middle range are being phased out of MLB, so they have either an option to play overseas,or retire when they still may have something left to bring to a team. There are 4 more years remaining under the CBA, and it would be beneficial for the Owners and Players when they return to the bargaining table to somehow resolve the team and player disparity of MLB.
I don't think they're being phased out unless they are phasing themselves out. Grossman has made 5 million each of the past 2 years. He's been around for 10 years, has a career .245 BA and was at .246 or less in 7 of those years. His best asset is a high OBP. That's good in the Moneyball concept but Moneyball was created by a team that had little money for payroll. So it's difficult to parlay that skill into a big contract. He can be useful as a mediocre 4th OFer but why pay 5 million or so for that? Ben Gamel played for 1.8 million last year. I think Grossman will find a team unless he overvalues himself.
Wacha is coming off a fine season after 3 bad ones. He made 7 million in 2022 and probably is holding out for a big contract after going 11-2, 3.32 ERA last year. But it's understandable that teams would be hesitant to gamble a large contract on him after his combined record for the 3 previous seasons was 10-16 with a 5.11 ERA. Despite Naquin's pedigree as a 1st round draft pick in 2012, he's essentially a 4th OFer type. He made 4 million last year while batting .229 with an OBP of .282 and just 11 HRs.
Gamel is still out there too. These 2nd tier FAs usually sign late, often just before or during spring training when they realize they are not going to hear an offer better than the ones they've been hearing. Some teams spend wildly to get the most consistently productive players. But they don't want to overpay for marginal players. But those players can still find a team if they don't make unreasonable contract demands.
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Early free agency outlook (Read 3845 times)
