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there is clearly a disconnect given the current rules between how the owners view team building and how established free agents want to be viewed. As the rules have it now, it makes much more business sense to build through mostly cost controlled/team controlled players. So what do you think should be done to fix this issue?
A few suggestions from me, but id be interested to hear other peoples opinion:
Change the service time rules: Teams are manipulating their players service time to purposely keep them in the organization for longer simply by keeping them in the minors for as little as a few days to start the year. How about something that says the second a player is in the majors you get 6 years of team control from that first year he's in the majors? There are obviously pros and cons to this suggestion.
Change the years of team control to make cost controlled/team controlled guys less valuable. Maybe change it from 6 years of team control to 5? This would obviously be heavily opposed by the owners, small market owners specifically.
Change the structure of the team control time. Whether its an extra year of arbitration (2 years of minimum salary + 4 years of arbitration eligibility) or something else, this would decrease the value of building through team controlled players and make free agents at least slightly more valuable.
Id try a combo of everything: reduce the years of team control from 6 to 5, while also changing the salary structure in those team control years, and also make the service time rules more player friendly to avoid purposeful manipulation of service time despite the young player being able to help the team win right away. So this would mean that the second a player is in the majors, that counts as 1 year of service time and the player has 4 remaining years in the organization no matter what, while also allowing the player to get to arbitration and free agency a year sooner. This would however come with the downside of young players being ready towards the tail end of the year being held out of late season baseball so that teams dont waste a year of service time for just a month of action.
Im obviously not an expert on the current service time rules and the different ways teams can manipulate it, so id be interested to hear other opinions on how to bridge the current gap between players and owners. Or maybe you just think the current free agents should quit overvaluing their market value and that the rules are currently fine. Id be interested to hear other opinions though.
A few suggestions from me, but id be interested to hear other peoples opinion:
Change the service time rules: Teams are manipulating their players service time to purposely keep them in the organization for longer simply by keeping them in the minors for as little as a few days to start the year. How about something that says the second a player is in the majors you get 6 years of team control from that first year he's in the majors? There are obviously pros and cons to this suggestion.
Change the years of team control to make cost controlled/team controlled guys less valuable. Maybe change it from 6 years of team control to 5? This would obviously be heavily opposed by the owners, small market owners specifically.
Change the structure of the team control time. Whether its an extra year of arbitration (2 years of minimum salary + 4 years of arbitration eligibility) or something else, this would decrease the value of building through team controlled players and make free agents at least slightly more valuable.
Id try a combo of everything: reduce the years of team control from 6 to 5, while also changing the salary structure in those team control years, and also make the service time rules more player friendly to avoid purposeful manipulation of service time despite the young player being able to help the team win right away. So this would mean that the second a player is in the majors, that counts as 1 year of service time and the player has 4 remaining years in the organization no matter what, while also allowing the player to get to arbitration and free agency a year sooner. This would however come with the downside of young players being ready towards the tail end of the year being held out of late season baseball so that teams dont waste a year of service time for just a month of action.
Im obviously not an expert on the current service time rules and the different ways teams can manipulate it, so id be interested to hear other opinions on how to bridge the current gap between players and owners. Or maybe you just think the current free agents should quit overvaluing their market value and that the rules are currently fine. Id be interested to hear other opinions though.
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