The sun rises over the Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches as hopes and dreams are encapsulated in a new season of promise. That complex is the home to the Washington Nationals’ facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. In 26-days, pitchers and catchers are set to officially open Spring Training camp on Feb. 12. But according to Jon Heyman, “156 MLB players are still waiting for deals as spring training approaches.” Even if each team signed three more players from that pool, there would still be 66-players looking for jobs.
Not only are players like Alex Bregman, Anthony Santander, Pete Alonso, and Max Scherzer unsigned, but so are Ha-Seong Kim, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Jurickson Profar, Jack Flaherty, Carlos Estévez, Randal Grichuk, Paul DeJong, Kenley Jansen, and David Robertson. There are others too — but those are Top-10 and Top-50 free agents that are still unemployed. What is going on?
Some teams have spent next to nothing per MLB Trade Rumors. Even the Phillies are only shopping at the $10MM and under rack so far. Rumors had it that the Phillies were shopping Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm for trade in an effort to free up salaries. The San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Seattle Mariners are all looking to cut back on payrolls this year. While the Cardinals are looking at a rebuild, and the Phillies are probably tapped out on cash, what are the issues with the other teams? Of course, there are some teams that are not spending from the small market teams.
Some teams have to sign some of the aforementioned stars, right? Yes. And hopefully the Washington Nationals see a golden opportunity here. For the 140 free agents who aren’t in that Top-50, you have to think that there will be dozens who will be signing minor league deals, and others will settle for one-year deals to get an MLB contract. Some won’t get jobs in the cruel shuffle of musical chairs. The music every year forces players into early retirement or having to re-route to independent baseball or baseball outside of the United States.
Front Office Sports looks directly at agent Scott Boras as Eric Fisher writes, “The elongated timetable for the collection of still-unsigned star free agents recalls the “Boras Four” of the 2023–2024 offseason, a group of players represented by top agent Scott Boras and including Blake Snell, fellow pitcher Jordan Montgomery, outfielder Cody Bellinger, and third-baseman Matt Chapman. Each of the quartet signed late in last year’s cycle with contracts below initial expectations, and then often struggled on the field—particularly in the early part of the 2024 season.” Fisher points notably at Boras clients like Bregman and Alonso — but there is also Scherzer and others that Boras took into this free agency that won’t end up getting anything close to the Juan Soto payday.
The Hot Stove froze over and fizzled quicker than by sparkling water that I left unopened in the refrigerator. After a few hours it tasted like bad tap water. Will a team throw Boras a lifeline on Alonso? If they were smart, they should turn the tables on Boras and squeeze him like he did to the Yankees and Mets on Soto. Will Alonso fall like Hertz or QXO Inc. did in the stock market in 2024? Montgomery dumped Boras as his agent and bad-mouthed him in the process. You would have thought that players would learn that you might have a better chance of getting your best deal when the teams have full wallets in early December … instead of waiting for late January when teams are working out logistics for Spring Training. Boras is already critical of teams not spending. Part of that is correct, but you also sometimes just have to learn by your prior mistakes.
Time will tell and expect that Boras will go into “spin mode” like he did when Bryce Harper fell way short of the $400 million number that was once attached to him, and his quote of “the sky’s the limit.” It doesn’t always work-out where you have two ego-driven billionaires bidding Soto’s contract higher than the annual GDP of the island of Dominica!
The 2023-2024 offseason was highlighted by significant spending, particularly by the Los Angeles Dodgers, after they committed over $1.2 billion in contracts, with a notable portion deferred. This included deals for Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and others. Additionally, there was nearly $3 billion spent league-wide during that offseason, which was described as one of the most active in terms of high-value contracts. With Soto, Corbin Burnes, and Snell signing big deals this offseason, we will see if there is an overall increase or decrease from last year.
With the offseason closing quickly, we can only hope that our Washington Nationals are going to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
