Another Free Agent?

[The Wise One]

Berardino did quote Ryan as saying that some of the remaining free agents have draft compensation issues, "which is scaring away other teams" [emphasis mine]. The two left with those issues are Morales and Drew.

 

E. Santana. Jimmenez, and Cruz also come with draft compensation issues. There really hasn't been a lot of buzz surrounding them, either.

[TheLeviathan]

I also remember reading something a few years ago suggesting the union opposed the idea, worrying that those artificially low salaries would somehow be used as comps to keep salaries low for younger players with similar production at the time. Doesn't seem like a very good reason to me, but that wouldn't keep people from worrying about it.

 

Exactly right. When Mauer was coming up on his big contract we heard a lot of talk about "hometown discount", but in the end what players value is being able to get every penny they can get. You hear them talk about "owing" it to those that came before them and did the same and owing it to the next guy too. If Mauer takes less, then it weakens someone else's bargaining position. The union is keenly aware of this perception (even if it's not true and a faulty concern) and actively campaigns players to avoid it.

 

If Robbie Cano was a smart businessman (and I'm assuming he, other players, and all their agents are) and realized the present value of money concept and wanted a front-loaded contract....is there any doubt there would be suitors? Some would back out, surely, for inflation reasons, but not all. Someone would do it. After all, the "agency" in determining the terms of contracts lies with players first. It's up to teams to play their game and how much to play it. But if Cano and the rest of the players suddenly decided that they wanted front-loaded deals to get better value out of their contract? Teams would cave.

 

But we don't see that, meaning the impetus is on players - they've decided those terms aren't to their liking. Part of that is union pressure to avoid low yearly salaries that may (probably wouldn't but it's their concern) impact negotiations. And the other part is ego - they want to be on that list of highest paid. They don't want to be left behind in terms of yearly salary.