November 29-30 - Two days of player move craziness?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

There are a lot of indications out there that today (Nov. 29) and tomorrow may very well be absolutely insane as far as MLB players signing deals before the possible lockout starts Wednesday. Add to that the non-tender deadline moving up, and it makes for a possible player movement tornado.

 

The question is ... will the Brewers be participating in the crazy? I kinda expect something to happen, other than officially announcing the Severino signing.

[narwhalattack]

I doubt it. What we always seem to do is see how things shake out and try to find a bargain. Harder to do when everyone is in a frenzy and a possible lockout looking close by.

[wibadgers23]

Kinda has a trade deadline feel to it. Should be an interesting couple of days. It sure is nice seeing all of these moves so early in the year as opposed to the last few years when things were dead until January. Of course, there’s a reason for it with the CBA set to expire so it’s bittersweet.

[brewers888]

Definitely expect it to be crazy the next few days but I would be shocked if the Brewers do anything substantial. I just hope that the lockout leads to a more favorable atmosphere for small markets like the Brewers though I tend to think Manfred only cares about teams like the Dodgers and Yankees leaving the small market teams at a huge disadvantage.

[endaround]

I wonder if the Brewers are hampered by the amount of money they receive in revenue sharing. Any change to the formula impacts revenue more for the Brewers than any other team. So its hard to commit to a payroll until its known that they will still will receive the ~$80 to $100 million they receive each year going forward.

[sveumrules]

Yeah, maybe the CBA should expire every year if that's what it takes for the owners to spend like drunken sailors early in the offseason. Don't really see Stearns & company getting in on the insanity with our current roster/payroll situation.

 

Good news is that I'd expect them to be more active on the trade front, which has been much slower developing, likely in anticipation of possible service time changes in the upcoming CBA.

[NievesNoNO]

It sounds like it might be an entertaining couple days for the bigger named players and bigger contracts to get completed. I'm not sure I completely understand why, however. I mean I get the lockout is coming and the CBA, etc. Is there expected to be less money for teams to spend after? Which side is pursuing getting contracts worked out more?

 

Are there details to what's being discussed that would negatively impact the current group of FA?

[sveumrules]

I think there are a couple factors at play. From the owners standpoint, they likely believe spending big before the CBA expires enhances their negotiating position somewhat. "Cheap? Look at all the money we just spent."

 

The other issue is just the competitiveness of MLB as a whole. In his capacity as an MLBPA rep Scherzer said something along the lines of he wouldn't sign any CBA he felt didn't address the issue. Boras said only 17 teams are going to try to win in 2022 & sure there's some Boras spin in there but he's still in the ballpark.

[Eye Black]

Sounds like most teams would like to get deals in place today because the contract agreement (including physicals) need to be fully executed/completed prior to the lockout.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Free agency wise, if signings aren't executed by the end of November there's going to be a gap before more deals are made depending on how CBA negotiations progress (or crater).

 

I'd expect the trade market to heat up towards the end of the year/early 2022, which is where the Brewers probably would be much more aggressive.

[Simba2020]

Free agency wise, if signings aren't executed by the end of November there's going to be a gap before more deals are made depending on how CBA negotiations progress (or crater).

 

I'd expect the trade market to heat up towards the end of the year/early 2022, which is where the Brewers probably would be much more aggressive.

Not sure why the trade market would be heating up towards the end of the year as trades aren't allowed to be made after the lockout either. At least among players on the 40 man roster.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Free agency wise, if signings aren't executed by the end of November there's going to be a gap before more deals are made depending on how CBA negotiations progress (or crater).

 

I'd expect the trade market to heat up towards the end of the year/early 2022, which is where the Brewers probably would be much more aggressive.

Not sure why the trade market would be heating up towards the end of the year as trades aren't allowed to be made after the lockout either. At least among players on the 40 man roster.

 

This is based on my assumption that after the holidays, owners and the players union come to their senses and come to terms on a new CBA - I'd imagine December is going to be used for both sides to bash each other, but they've got to both realize already that a lengthy lockout that actually impacts spring training/regular season games would be disastrous to both of them.

[Eye Black]

One additional positive of this early flurry of FA moves is my hopeless pipe dream that the Brewers could sign Corey Seager to a long-term deal should be dashed fairly quickly instead of dragging out most of the offseason.

[brewers888]

I am more than willing to go through a long lock out if there are meaningful positive changes that help the small market teams.

[TURBO]

I am more than willing to go through a long lock out if there are meaningful positive changes that help the small market teams.

 

I'd hate it during the lockout, but I agree...

 

It's time to level the playing field, even though I know there is almost a 0% chance of that happening...........................ever!

[brewers888]

I am more than willing to go through a long lock out if there are meaningful positive changes that help the small market teams.

 

I'd hate it during the lockout, but I agree...

 

It's time to level the playing field, even though I know there is almost a 0% chance of that happening...........................ever!

 

Every other sport has a level playing field and its long past the time where baseball does as well.

[Roderick]

I am more than willing to go through a long lock out if there are meaningful positive changes that help the small market teams.

 

I'd hate it during the lockout, but I agree...

 

It's time to level the playing field, even though I know there is almost a 0% chance of that happening...........................ever!

 

Every other sport has a level playing field and its long past the time where baseball does as well.

 

How can they? How can you take some of the Dodgers local TV money away and give it to the Brewers? Basically you hope to increase the amount they give to small market teams, and can do that from the players point of view if they institute some type of floor spending for those teams (even if the team isn't really logically ready to spend that amount of money yet).

 

I thought splitting internet revenue equally would be the long-term cure way back when. But basically the local TV being streamed is still "local". So unless they put something out there now that 20 years from now, all TV revenue would be subject to splitting. So that it is longer than whatever is the longest contract out there. Then you have to figure out how to handle the teams that own their own TV (hence the team would not negotiate for the best amount they could, and would let the TV arm of the company make a bunch of money).

[reillymcshane]

There are a lot of indications out there that today (Nov. 29) and tomorrow may very well be absolutely insane as far as MLB players signing deals before the possible lockout starts Wednesday. Add to that the non-tender deadline moving up, and it makes for a possible player movement tornado.

 

The question is ... will the Brewers be participating in the crazy? I kinda expect something to happen, other than officially announcing the Severino signing.

I believe the expiration is 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

 

So we probably have three days of craziness.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I am more than willing to go through a long lock out if there are meaningful positive changes that help the small market teams.

 

Far as I can tell the crux of the current CBA negotiations that may lead to a lockout have more to do with the degree of how much pain is inflicted on small market teams in terms of setting payroll salary floors to enable the luxury tax threshold to be dropped, reducing years of team control on pre-free agency players, and likely increasing the speed at which pre-free agency players are paid closer to their actual on-field worth (basically eliminating a season of pre-arby team control).

 

I just don't see potential meaningful positive changes in the new CBA to the structure of how MLB operates that will benefit small market teams to "even the playing field" - lockout or no lockout. The longer there's labor uncertainty, the more it hurts small markets compared to big markets.

[NievesNoNO]

MLB needs to start approaching their enterprise as a single business instead of 30 individual entities. I just think they're due for a revolution of sorts when it comes to finances, TV/streaming and marketing. When I see the contracts handed out again over the past few hours, I'm reminded how very Monopoly money-ish everything is to me. It's hard for me to really believe either side really needs more of one thing or the other. What they need is to work together and put some leadership in place that stands for the game and not for just working on the happiness of owners and players. Yes, that's obviously important but there needs to be more than that. You know what would create more meaningful games in Sept instead of more "playoff" teams? Yes, more meaningful teams in Sept .

 

All that said, financial equality in the NFL hasn't stopped the Lions, Browns, Bengals, or Jets from being awful for decades so there's that to reference. You have to be careful what you ask for. Forcing teams to spend into mediocrity isn't all that appealing either but at least you can put the blame at the feet of the GM or coaches then. There's not a black or white answer, imo. I just hope they have as short of a work stoppage as possible and leadership addresses the entire model of business in the near future.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

 

All that said, financial equality in the NFL hasn't stopped the Lions, Browns, Bengals, or Jets from being awful for decades so there's that to reference.

 

It has though. Those teams suck, but all of them, even the Lions, have put together 11 win seasons or similar within the past ~10 years. The Jets were in consecutive AFCCGs. The Jaguars were there recently.

 

But sustained success in the NFL or NBA is closely tied to having one really good player (QB or whatever 30ppg scorer). And when you get one, it is exceptionally rare that they leave in their 20s because other teams can't really outbid. In baseball, one player isn't taking you anywhere. You have to be able to reload at multiple spots every single year. There is just not an easy way for small teams to do that. There's no way, really, other than drafting incredibly well.