No Reserves

Ah, free agency. Players and their agents love it. Owners and their GM’s make the most of it out of necessity. Fans must endure it.

Steve Finley is my nominee for this year’s Free Agent Poster Child. Soon to be forty years old, Finley will be playing for his third team in less than a year when he suits up for Anaheim next Spring. Traded by the Diamondbacks to LA at last year’s July 31 deadline as a player on the verge of free agency, he was essentially rented by the Dodgers for their pennant drive and then, declaring himself an official free agent, signed a two-year contract with the Angels, his sixth team in a fifteen year career.

The free movement of those players who don’t sign mega-hundred million dollar ten-year contracts, that is, the majority of players eligible for free agency, is the norm in baseball today. Two or three year stays and it’s off again to greener pastures, indoors or out. I am hardly advocating a return to indentured servitude, but I cannot help feeling this revolving door scenario undermines any feeling of continuity and connection between fans and their home teams and makes the off-season a endless series of notable dates: declaring, tendering, signing and compensating.

I still believe a better system is already in place. At the end of each season, all eligible players should list themselves on Ebay, auctioning themselves off to the highest bidder. Think of the beauty of it. No rumors. No playing one team off another. The current bid available at a click for all to see. Just two rules should apply: no reserves and the players pay the shipping