Major League Baseball’s free agent market has moved extremely slowly, with many of the top names still available. Lots of people are still trying to figure out why this is.
While the obvious explanation is teams simply aren’t willing to spend the money they once were, the league itself blamed superagent Scott Boras for slowing things down.
“There are a variety of factors that could explain the operation of the market,” MLB said in a statement to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. “We can say that without a doubt collusion is not one of them. It’s difficult to pinpoint a single cause, but it certainly is relevant that an agent who has a long track record of going late into the market controls many of the top players.”
That’s an obvious reference to Boras, and a somewhat inaccurate one. As Passan notes, Boras has negotiated 13 nine-figure deals in his career, and eight of them were signed before January.
“I wouldn’t blame the baker if the flour doesn’t show up,” Boras retorted.
What we have is standoffs like this one, in which one team digs its heels in and refuses to come close to meeting an asking price. It’s tough to say what the end game is here, but it’s clear that the system isn’t working for players as it stands.
