You won’t find a single soul on planet Earth that would describe this year’s MLB off-season as entertaining. In fact, I’ve heard people describe it as a snoozefest. I’ve even heard some say watching paint dry has given them a bigger thrill. The reality is unless you are a fan of the Dodgers, your off-season has not been entertaining. Major League Baseball should look to another American sport, football, and see how they operate in the off-season to create a buzz around the sport.
Yesterday, the National Football League officially opened their beginning stages of free agency as agents were allowed to meet with clients to discuss new deals. Despite today at 4 pm being the official time when deals can be announced, many players already had a deal in place as of yesterday. In fact, in the first 6 hours of when the negotiations were allowed to occur, 38 players either signed an extension or signed with a new team. Talk about a free agent frenzy! The 38 players did not include big names like Russel Wilson and Baker Mayfield, who had a deal in place prior to when negotiations were allowed to take place. If you count those, that would be 40 deals! The NFL free agency talk dominated the sports world yesterday. That’s entertainment.
Now, let’s discuss the snail’s pace off an off-season that Major League Baseball has had. When free agency opened on November 2nd, 1 player signed in the first 24 hours. That player's name was Joe Jiménez. To make matters worse, the next player to sign happened 2 weeks after Jiménez signed. That player’s name was Ricky Navasco. Talk about the off-season starting off with a bang! For the entire month of November, only 20 players signed deals, which is only half of what the NFL did in 6 hours. Of those 20 names, I would bet most baseball fans never heard of half of them. Baseball fans, were you not entertained?
So, what is different about what the NFL does during their free agent period? One big difference is when the free agent period begins. The Super Bowl happened a month before free agency opened. Players had their opportunity to meet with their current organization and get a feel for what their current organization may be willing to offer. In that month, I imagine players have “behind closed doors” meetings with other teams because that is the only explanation for how so many deals happened in such a short period of time. With Major League Baseball, players can sign with another team 5 days after the World Series. That's not a lot of time to have in-depth conversations about a player’s future with multiple organizations.
Another potential explanation for the free agent frenzy in the NFL is the draft is on April 25th this season. Teams have just over a month to get their rosters in order, so they know what they need to draft. Teams must have a plan and go out and execute it quickly. Major League Baseball’s draft is in the summer and in the middle of the season. Players that are drafted are also not going to impact big league clubs immediately after being drafted like many first rounders do in the NFL.
The last potential factor is most teams spend money in the NFL. There were 22 teams that were within 10 M of the NFL’s salary cap. To contrast that number, only 12 teams were within 10 M or over MLB’s luxury tax threshold. There were 6 MLB teams that were 100+ M away from the luxury tax threshold. To sum it up, NFL teams spend money and there’s a bunch of MLB teams that don’t. For instance, the Washington Commanders came into the offseason with the most money to spend and made 6 signings in the first 24 hours. Imagine if the Oakland Athletics did something similar. When we think about some of the top free agents available, imagine the reigning MVP of the NFL not being on a roster 2 weeks before the season starts. That is essentially the scenario that is currently taking place with Blake Snell as he is the reigning CY award winner in National League and is without a team.
There are significant differences when it comes to the 2 sports, but both are in the entertainment industry. I don’t think football ever loses that idea. However, I think baseball sometimes gets lost in its own analytics and there are too many signs that suggest the relationship between the owners and the players lacks a significant amount of trust. That forces contract negotiations to go on for weeks.
The only thing that I can think of that can truly change is for Major League Baseball to move the signing period back a few weeks. This would allow conversations to take place and hopefully players and teams would have things figured out when the signing period opens. Another solution that is possible is having a salary floor forcing teams like the Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pirates to spend more. This would never be agreed upon by the Players Association and the Owners. But, if more teams are in on free agents, it would create a greater sense of urgency from clubs to sign some of the game’s top available free agents. Unfortunately, I do not think there is anything Major League Baseball can do about the draft that would affect free agency.
I’m not saying the MLB off-season must be as fast paced as the NFL off-season, but something faster than at a snail’s pace every single fan would sign up for. They could easily make some changes to have somewhat of a free agent frenzy. It’s just good entertainment.