TORONTO – Both sides made it sound as if Stephen Strasburg’s seven-year, $175-million contract with the Washington Nationals was simply the product of good intentions coupled with deliberate, honest negotiating – that it was almost a pro forma thing.
And perhaps it really was. Perhaps it just seems as if the entire baseball world, with the exception of Strasburg, agent Scott Boras and Nationals ownership and management, couldn’t believe it when news broke late Monday night that the most eagerly anticipated free agent of the winter was off the market.
In May, yet.
A Boras guy signed in May.
The signing means that one of the worst free-agent starting pitching classes in recent memory just became the worst in recent memory. R.A. Dickey, Mat Latos, Rich Hill and Edinson Volquez are now the best options available – not a front-three pitcher among them. The relief pool is deeper – you can make the case that Aroldis Chapman is now the best individual player or pitcher on the market, but don’t count out him re-signing with the New York Yankees, and Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon have track records as closers.
If you’re a team like the Toronto Blue Jays, then, it’s a good thing you spent some money in the market this winter (signing J.A. Happ; re-upping Marco Estrada) while retaining Drew Hutchison at triple-A Buffalo. There are no quick fixes; coupled with the manner in which teams are now locking up young pitchers, it will be a pitching desert this off-season. As for trades? The value of the game’s most precious commodity just spiked even further.
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You wonder what that means for free-agent position players such as the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Will teams view the lack of pitching as a reason to spend money on position players, especially if those players can provide an instant infusion of power – a commodity that has become more cherished as baseball metamorphoses into a speed, pitching and defence-oriented game with the continued pursuit of performance enhancing substance users? Or are we entering a period of more careful winter spending – given the fact that for many big-market teams, perhaps the deepest free-agent market of all time is only just two-and-a-half years away. Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Josh Donaldson, Andrew McCutchen, Adam Jones, Manny Machado and Jose Fernandez will headline that class, along with closers Trevor Rosenthal and Jeurys Familia. Will that limit the market for a four- or five-year deal for Bautista and Encarnacion and might that see one of them return to the Blue Jays?
The other aspect of this signing that raised eyebrows is the identity of Strasburg’s agent. Boras clients don’t re-sign when they’re half a year away from free agency, whether or not they would be the most sought-after free agent on the market. Boras clients test free agency, because that’s where the most money is, which means Boras makes a bigger commission and also raises future salary levels for players – many of whom will also be represented by Boras.
At Tuesday’s news conference, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo described the negotiations as being “player driven,” saying that even though the sides wanted talks resolved by the start of the regular season, so much progress was made they decided to continue talking. The sides, in fact, fairly tripped all over each other with compliments, Boras telling Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell that the Nationals’ concern first and foremost for his client’s health – remember, the Nationals adhered to Boras’ request to treat his client with kid gloves and were roundly pilloried for shutting down Strasburg in 2012 – provided the foundation for successful talks. At any rate, the most significant move of the off-season just happened. And it’s May. And it’s a Boras client.