Quote:
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch
1. You have no evidence they’re colluding.
2. We’ve reached the point where the $$ is too big to make any mistake on. A $55M mistake on AJ Pollock, Dodgers can live with. But $300M on Harper? Whole diff ballgame.
3. we have no clue what offers they’re holding. The Red Sux and JD Martinez worked 3 months on their deal last winter. It was going to happen. I suspect the Phils or Mets etc are waiting out Harper.
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And while you are correct that we don't know what offers either of them have had, I suspect that the major sticking point is still going to be over opt-outs.
The agents for these mega clients want absolutely no risk in their deals and want ALL the risk on the signing teams. If the player plays to his ability for 3 years, he's going to want to opt out and test the market under the new CBA. If he goes Full Heyward and just sucks, well shit happens team - you're stuck with him for a decade.
Everyone wants to make this about money when in all reality it's almost certainly falling apart due to exposure. Notice how quickly the market has slowed down since the opt-outs have become industry standard. People point to the draft pick compensation as the reason but that's ridiculous - draft pick compensation is LESS burdensome than it was under the previous Type A and Type B FA compensation rules, especially for higher end players. And it's not a raw dollars thing because teams aren't risking proportionally more even with the raw dollars being higher (revenues have increased as well).
The problem is that there is literally no way for them to truly come out ahead with the rise of opt-outs. Those are what is killing these deals and those are what teams are now fighting against. If the mega-agents would actually say "Sure, we'll take $300/10 with no opt-outs..." I'm betting these guys would get signed in a heartbeat. But they don't want to risk the possibility of the new CBA exploding the market and their clients being locked in long-term.
And I'd imagine dozens of teams would gladly give a high AAV, 3 year deal to get to the next CBA as well but again - agents won't risk their guy getting hurt.
They want it both coming and going and they cry collusion when owners are unwilling to just bend over and take it. It's ridiculous.