Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Baseball’s Unfortunate Trend

The labor rules negotiated via ownership and players has created exactly the kind of system that fans lament.  Unfortunately, the newest CBA is going to lead to more of this trend, not less.

The Atlanta Braves had Chipper Jones.  The San Diego Padres had Tony Gwynn.  The Baltimore Orioles had Cal Ripken Jr.  The Yankees had Derek Jeter.

These are the exceptions.

It is a sad trend that teams typically fail to keep their best players for their entire career.  The reasons for this are obvious:  economics.  Money.  Freedom of choice and movement.  We get that.

But it’s sad for the simple reason that fans want to wake up and know that the sun rises in the East, that their world is still much like it was when left alone the previous night, and yes – even that their sports heroes are still with the same team… much less that they aren’t now playing for a hated rival.

Yeah, that still bothers me about Tom Glavine.

The System Doesn’t Encourage Such Things

In the beginning, there was no freedom of player movement.  Curt Flood challenged this and ultimately won, though his “victory” reaped benefits for hundreds of others – not himself.

In those days, lots of players stayed with the same organization for their entire careers.  But that also had a negative impact on others while also limiting opportunities.

Currently, once a player reaches the major, a team is granted up to six years of ‘control’ over that player:  three years before the salary arbitration system kicks in and three years afterwards (simplified for this discussion).

After that comes free agency, where players almost universally now sell their skills to the highest bidder in an almost surreal auction-like market.

Some teams, like the Dodgers, can afford to throw money at their best players.  As such, Clayton Kershaw could indeed be a Dodger for life.  Ditto for Justin Verlander, though if the Tigers are to be believed, that might not ultimately happen.

In an extraordinary move that seems to have paid off for them, the Tampa Bay Rays rolled the dice in 2012 and awarded a ten year extension deal to Evan Longoria, in the hopes that he would be their superstar.

This was a huge risk for the Rays.  Obviously, he’s been great for them, but even so, there have been some noises about perhaps trading the 3-time All-Star now that he’s (finally) getting expensive to the club… and he’s approaching the 10-and-5 deadline (in 2018) for trade veto privileges.  Yes – another systemic barrier to discourage holding your own.

Thus for the majority of clubs, that opportunity to hold their best assets is extremely difficult.

What’s worse is that the problem seems to be exacerbated as players get better.