Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Baseball’s Unfortunate Trend

The Curse of Greatness

Take Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, for instance.  He played for Montreal, Seattle, Houston, Arizona, the Yankees, Arizona again, and finally the GIants.  He was a hired gun who was brought in to lead teams to the World Series.. and did manage to help win one.

There are several fan bases that like him a lot for his contributions to their team… but there isn’t any one that can truly call him ‘theirs’.

So today Andrew McCutchen is being shopped by the Pirates.  In his case, he was hoping to be a Pirate for life… at least, that’s what he said.

But Pittsburgh sees the handwriting on the wall.  They can’t afford to spend $20 million annually or more on a player – even one of Cutch’s obvious ability.  And to ask him to settle for $15 million or so in another contract extension seems to be somehow cheating him out of several million ‘earned’ dollars … if you want to compare him to others in the game

So the Pirates are in between a rock and a hard place:  they can’t afford a ‘market rate’ McCutchen, and because of that, it’s important to the organization to unload him for maximum possible trade value.

Such was the case – or will be – with Jonathan Lucroy.  Chris Sale (though less so on the money there).  Chris Archer, David Price, Jason Heyward, and countless others.

The Curse of the New CBA

It had been that many teams would at least hang on to their stars as long as possible, get the most benefit from them, and then cash in the draft pick compensation after losing them.

The Qualifying Offer concept has made that an interesting dance between free agents and clubs interested in their services, but the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has tipped the scale.

Many teams will not be able to get full value for their departing free agents, so that will force them to consider dumping their stars onto the market early in order to maximize their returns.

Such is already happening (perhaps) with McCutchen.  The Nationals – should they fail in the playoffs again – may very well choose to do this with Bryce Harper after next season ends.

You get the picture.  Heck, with trade returns like the White Sox got with Sale and Eaton, it’s almost stupid not to consider dumping your best onto the market early.

How could this possibly be fixed?

I do like something similar to the way the NFL works:  the Franchise Tag.  Place that label on a player, and you can keep him… if you pay him appropriately, of course.

For baseball players, a second label might be needed for those around 35 years and older… a Legacy Tag, perhaps.  This could allow a lower average salary commensurate with expected performance drops… if indeed that happens.

That’s a very broad outline of an idea that could keep a player or two attached to their original teams for life… but whether the union or the owners would ever even consider such a proposal is something with sketchy odds, for sure.

But the fans would embrace that.