Future of Free agency

[chibears55]

i was bored and looked up every team future payroll. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/

i remember reading somewhere that the quantity of future free agents are going to be drastically reduced over the next few years as teams are now starting to tie up their their younger ( under 28 ) core players to long term contracts, along with as we seen some established players the last couple of years agreeing to contracts that will take them over the age of 35.

so what i did was looked up payroll from 2014 - 2019 for every team and i noticed that most team top 2-3 players between 28-32 were tied up to contracts for the next 3+ years.. which tells us that with the quantity going down, so will the quality of players that enter free agency.


like or dislike what the cubs have done the last couple of years with paying more attention to their farm system, but from what im seeing right now is if a team does not have a solid young core group of players tied up to contracts in the next 2-3 years and an established farm system to help keep the flow going on the parent team. their going to struggle for a while as they wont really be able to get that quick fix with free agency as most to all of the FAs will be players at the end of their careers and role players..

look at the yankees, for years we have seen them sign top players like crazy to big money long term contracts to help them continue their playoff runs.. looking at their payroll now they have just 3 players under contract after 2014 ( Arod, Teixera, and Sabathia ), why because they know that they need to start establishing a younger core of players because the days of being able to sign every established 28- 32 YO FA to big money and years is coming to an end as the quantity and quality of players in the FA pool is dwindling down now.


those of you hating on what the cubs have done should really take a good look at where the future of Free Agency is headed, look at the list for the next 2 years and notice it has gotten shorter from what were use to seeing and as we seen the last couple of years there less then a handful of under 32 players that are top quality players that you would want to give big money and years too.

 

[chibears55]

for those who feel the cubs are not doing it right with fixing their minor league system that had ranked 30th overall between 2003 and 2011, and feel they should be spending money on FAs for a quick fix to compete..

heres a list of FAs for next off season of players under 32, past their baseball prime years..

POSITION PLAYERS (age going into 2015 )

Billy Butler (30)
Emilio Bonaficio (31)
Asdrubal Cabrera (30)
Pablo Sandoval (29)
Melky Cabrera (31)
Colby Rasmus (29)

PITCHERS

Brett Anderson (28)
Homer Bailey ) (30)
Chad Billingsley (31)
Wei-Yin Chen (30)
Johnny Cueto (30)
Yovani Gallardo (30)
Kyle Kendrick (31)
Clayton Kershaw (28)
Justin Masterson (31)
Brandon Morrow (31)
Max Scherzer (31)

RELIEVERS
Chris Perez (30)
David Robertson (31)
Joakim Soria (31)
Jose Mijares (31)
Andrew Miller (31)
Franklin Morales (30)




not a whole lot going on there if your looking for a long term FA that will have an immediate impact on your team to be a yearly WS contender.
people need to realize that the future of FA is not going to be the way it was, teams are now tying up their younger impact players to long term deals past their prime years. which will basically leave just role players and position players past their primes available for teams looking to add one or two pieces to help strengthen an already playoff contending core.
like it or not, the cubs sacrificed on the major league level with trading of players past their primes / flips to strengthen their system to prepare for the future / long term success where FA will not be an option to build a team..
im not saying that all or even most of these prospects are going to be successful, just saying that they have taken a jump on most teams and are heading in the right direction for the near future.

people say the cubs should be spending money like a big market team.. look a few years ahead and see that the cubs will be spending their money like a big market team but unlike most of the small market clubs, they will be able to spend most of that money on their own young core group of FAs once they hit their prime years and be able to extend them . like they did with rizzo extending him til the age of 31 with team options at age 30 and 31 in case he flames, and castro extending him til the age of 30 with a team option at age 30 in case he flames..
thats what made the cardinals and braves successful for a long time and the cubs are finally going that route and doing things the right way.

so, instead of pissn and moaning about what they have done or didnt do via FA the last couple seasons, look ahead and see what their going to do and be able to do. IF prospects like baez and bryant play the way their projected too, the cubs will be able to tie them up long term like they did with castro and rizzo because their a big market team bringing in big market income because of being able to modernize WF, and being in a big market city.. unlike the pitts, KC, etc.

time to stop being disgruntled over the past and embrace the future and see their finally doing things the right way...