The dizzying pace of free agent signings in the last day or two has made the last 48 hours look like a frenzied edition of the Winter Meetings. Yet those meetings, if held, happen next week, not this one.
The teams and players have been rushing to beat an expected deadline - the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement. This happens at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday night. The deadline to non-tender players has also been moved up ahead of the original Dec. 2 deadline.
I digress here, but perhaps what we have seen this week shows us that baseball should have a free agent signing deadline each winter. Maybe Jan. 31 would be a good date. It would almost act like an offseason trade deadline day. Maybe players then cannot be signed until opening day. So a player doesn't lose out completely if not signed by that date. And perhaps they put a salary limit of $25 million total contract and players could sign for under that total value after Jan. 31. But creating this artificial deadline has livened up the offseason in a hurry.
The signing frenzy of the last few days has put a spotlight on baseball and maybe an offseason signing deadline is the answer moving forward.
This week also shows us that when players insist they want to play for a winner, perhaps they mean within reason. And if they say it's not about the dollars, it's always about the dollars.
The Texas Rangers, who went 60-102 last season, second-worst in the American League to the Orioles, signed two players for a total of $500 million on Monday. They added shortstop Corey Seager from the Dodgers on a 10-year deal worth $325 million. They earlier had signed infielder Marcus Semien away from Toronto for seven years and $175 million. They also added free agent starting pitcher Jon Gray, signing him away from Colorado, for four years and $56 million.
So they signed free agents ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 8 by ESPN.
The Dodgers lost key players to the Rangers to the Mets. The Dodgers. The big-spending, big-revenue, big-winning Dodgers.
The Toronto Blue Jays added former Oriole right-hander Kevin Gausman on a five-year deal worth $110 million. They are betting that Gausman's recent good pitching will continue. The Blue Jays, who won 91 games, yet finished fourth in the American League East last season, have lost the AL Cy Young Winner in pitcher Robbie Ray to Seattle and Semien, who finished third in the MVP voting, to Texas.
How about this for a stat: Semien, now $175 million richer, has a career OPS of .768. Trey Mancini, projected to get $7.9 million from the Orioles through arbitration, has a career OPS of .804.
Semien has had big years in two of the last three seasons. But his career batting line over 1,020 games is .256/.324/.444. Semien also just signed a seven-year deal at 31. To say that sometimes these mega-deals don't work out is an understatement.
Looks like the Rangers have won the winter so far. But they should ask the San Diego Padres about their trophy from last winter.
The one signing that might be truly significant was the Seattle Mariners adding Ray on a five-year deal for $115 million. Ray got 29 of 30 first-place votes in winning the Cy Young, going 13-7 with a 2.84 ERA. He's going to need to pitch a lot more like that for Seattle than how he did over the 2019 and 2020 seasons. In those two years, he had an ERA of 4.86 over 44 starts.
Meanwhile, with the deadline for tendering contracts to arbitration-eligible players moved up to today, we should be hearing about the six Orioles who fit in this category. One or more could be non-tendered. A player that is non-tendered becomes a free agent - free to sign with any club, including getting a new deal from the Orioles. They still could re-sign here.
Here are the Orioles in question today and their projected 2022 salary numbers via MLBTradeRumors.com:
* Mancini ($7.9 million)
* Anthony Santander ($3.7 million)
* John Means ($3.1 million)
* Jorge López ($1.5 million)
* Paul Fry ($1.1 million)
* Tanner Scott ($1 million)
I will venture a guess that the Orioles tender contracts to all but Fry today. I think he is a non-tender candidate, but also a player the club would look to retain if at all possible.