The Special Case: Freddie Freeman.
The current CBA permits teams to have a five-day window for exclusive negotiations with their pending free agents before they hit the open market. That window begins the day after the World Series ends.
As of today, Freddie Freeman is on Day 4 of that window… and I cannot ever recall anyone ever actually re-signing with their original club during that period of exclusivity.
I’ve believed all along, even though it’s taken far longer than I anticipated, that there’s no way this team lets Freddie go. And that was before they won the World Series. Would be inconceivably bad from both competitive and PR standpoint not to re-sign him. https://t.co/lDYHIPX0Uy
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) November 6, 2021
Freeman effectively took a discount by signing his 8-year deal for 2014-2021. He traded financial certainty for what could have been a very large payday starting in 2017… the season where he would originally have become a free agent. Even so, he clearly did well in that original deal.
He doesn’t have to accept any discounts now. His value is clear to anyone paying attention.
The questions now are about ‘dollars per year’ and ‘number of years’.
Anything Freeman would sign with Atlanta would be a record-setter. Maybe not for the number of years, but certainly for total value and for the average annual value.
When dealing with contracts at that kind of level, it’s not just up to the General Manager and the player. It also involves that ownership: Terry McGuirk and his bosses at Liberty media.
Is that the holdup in this process? It’s almost certainly either that or concerns about a new CBA. Either way, Liberty Media needs to look around at event from this week and realize (a) just how much money they made this week from the World Series festivities and afterglow, and (b) that removing Freeman from the mix would seriously jeopardize all chances to repeat… and possibly having another shot at a title while players like Acuna and Albies are still present.
Heck, even the Braves tracking stock price has risen 20% since the team made its run (August 18 price $25.05; current price $30.69).
Yes: it is true that Liberty Media continues to face a large debt from financing a large portion of the construction projects involving Truist Park and Battery Atlanta. According to recent SEC filings, this debt increased in 2021 to $721 million… almost certainly the result of pandemic impacts. That said, revenues rebounded strongly in the quarter before the playoffs began.
The Atlanta Braves are sitting at the cusp of being a perennial contender that can be a true force in their league for multiple years to come. While it’s hard to name a single player as being the key to doing so for any club, Freeman certainly represents that for this team.
Figure it out. Get it done.