Many of you have noticed that our long-running Offseason Outlook series is now a part of our paid Trade Rumors Front Office service.
I understand this change has been jarring for some, and I apologize for not providing a heads up. It is a permanent change, and next spring’s Offseason in Review series will be exclusive to Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers as well.
Our traffic declined in 2023 for the first time in MLBTR’s history, and ad rates have been falling for roughly seven years. I decided to create Trade Rumors Front Office in 2020 to close the gap on ad revenue that is no longer there.
Requiring a subscription to read the Offseason Outlook series was not a decision I made lightly. These posts take roughly three hours each to write, and the majority of them receive modest traffic. The ad revenue on the series was not close to covering the time required to produce it. I take great pride in our work on the Offseason Outlook series, and I think it’s worth paying for.
We have a couple of other time-consuming major original offseason features that also don’t pay for themselves, in our arbitration projections and our Top 50 Free Agents list. I have no current plans to put those behind the paywall.
I think we add a lot of value to news posts as well, particularly on write-ups of major signings and trades. News posts, which make up the vast majority of MLBTR, remain free. A portion of our more time-consuming opinion-based analysis has been exclusive to subscribers for over four years now. Other original work, such as our recent free agent preview by position, remains free to all.
It can be difficult to find a balance and make the math work. If you’re here strictly for the news, that’s still free. If you find value in our analysis and tools and have the means, then I hope you’ll consider a Trade Rumors Front Office subscription.
I have not raised the price on Trade Rumors Front Office in four-plus years, even as we’ve continually added benefits. It remains $29.89 per year. Benefits include:
- Ad-free browsing experience
- Exclusive weekly articles from Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco
- Offseason Outlook and Offseason in Review series covering all 30 teams
- Exclusive weekly live chat with Anthony
- GM-caliber tools such as our MLB Contract Tracker and Agency Database
- 100% money-back guarantee
MLBTR is approaching its 19th anniversary in November. It’s a privilege to do this for a living, and we value everyone who chooses to visit the site. I intend to continue running MLBTR as an independent small business for as long as possible. Enjoy the playoffs; we’re hard at work preparing for another exciting offseason!
understandable, thank you all for the free and fast news for so many years
Ditto! This place is great and nobody would expect it to be run at a loss, gotta do what is necessary to pay the bills and keep the staff.
Most of us strongly believe the annual subscription should be at least $39.99 for all the great content, it would still be a bargain. We would rather pay the higher annual fee than deal with even more ads.
You believe that but don’t actually subscribe already?
Sid – I have a family member who is already subscribed, so why would I subscribe?
If you actually had a wife, would both you and her pay for two separate Costco memberships?
Think, McFly …. think.
Don’t you mean $39.89! I would have it at $49.99 by now. 4 years of people paying most wouldn’t stop with a 2 year price increase. After 50 people would really start thinking about the value.
I have been remiss in not signing up, as I have used the site for years. The content consistently gets better over time, with all of the improved features and additional proprietary content that Tim & Co. have been adding to the mix.
I will use this as impetus to join the fold as a subscriber, and apologize for not doing this before. Figuring out how to monetize the product is a constant concern for quality sites in this new information age and the ones that i rely upon should get my dollars. Thanks for all of the hard work.
As an avid fan of the site for over a decade who has yet to subscribe to Front Office but always intended to, this is the push I needed to sign up. Well done recognizing what you bring to the table that your competitors do not, and I have no problem paying for that.
Great services for a great value
Great job all these years Tim. Dunno how many other old timers are still posting, tho can think of a small handful of usernames not seen for a very long time which used to see regularly here..
What would happen if the GREATEST baseball site on the net disappeared? To awful to contemplate.
You may want to offer an introductory rate to Trade Rumors Front Office similar to other major sports publications like The Athletic. This way you give fans the opportunity to see the value in Front Office before committing to the $29.89 subscription price.
If you’re struggling to spend $30.00 for an entire year’s worth of content, no introductory rate is going change your mind.
That is not why i said it, smart alec. I can afford the $30 and more. I was asking MLBTradeRumors, not YOU, to consider the introductory offer for those that are sitting on the fence and who may not want to pay the $30 before they see the benefits Front Office offers. I was trying to help out, not criticize their pricing structure.
On my end it’s a lot simpler to consider the $2.99 monthly option to be an introductory rate. Someone could do that for a month or two and see if they want to go annual. You can turn off auto-renew.
I haven’t discounted to date because I feel like it’s a bit unfair to those who paid full price already.
Tim
As a paid subscriber I greatly appreciate all the hard work and the exclusivity in getting informative articles, especially when they come out before a lot of the other platforms come out with breaking news. Thanks again.
Not the ideal place to ask this, but I noticed varying “log in status” on PFR while on MLBTR.
Do paying subscribers on MLBTR also have access to additional content on Hoops Rumors, PFR, and PHR?
Yes, Front Office includes exclusives for Hoops and PFR. PHR, not quite yet.
It’s already less than $3 a month dude. Just pay it or don’t.
for basically $29 you get a lot of information and access to a lot of information… and since we are all baseball fans (Isn’t that why we’re here) it’s worth it… thank you
I love this website and I check it multiple times every day of the year. I have no problem with the small yearly fee and I am happy to pay it for all the fantastic extra features. I’ll be a loyal subscriber for many years to come. For those who don’t want to pay the small fee they are missing out and great information and insight.
I’m not going to pick apart your post as you are welcome to post it but I could not disagree more, the game is fantastic! Analytics in sports is a fact just like anything else in life like traffic patterns or Netflix viewing.
The fact that Detroit made the playoffs after selling their veteran players is just one reason this game is fantastic. Also, there is plenty of talk here about records being chased etc.
Cut Tim and the crew some slack, they do a great job, and I plan on subscribing over the weekend.
I’ve been reading mlbtr for years. Love it. Explaining to fans why certain articles are going to paid platform wasnt needed but it was classy and I believe your post was genuine. I just subscribed.
Keep it going and I hope traffic picks back up.
Go Cubs
I appreciate sites like this that talk to you like this.
I’m a subscriber, and you just reminded me that this is probably the most affordable subscription I have. $2.50/month? For a site I read nearly every day? That’s a deal!
Thanks Tim! Keep doing what you do.
If we diverted resources from news posts to original posts, our traffic would decrease. Something with Yankees Notes or whatever does better traffic than an original that takes a couple hours to write.
In terms of being a bit analytical, that’s been the case since Day 1 and has gone on 19 years. I’d probably rather stop doing this than change that.
“Now it’s seemingly all about who’s got the best beard, the coolest sneakers, players bear hugging each other at 2nd base and who did the best pimp job after hitting a HR while they were down 7 runs.” – not sure who is all about those things, but obviously not this website?
–“Now it’s seemingly all about who’s got the best beard, the coolest sneakers, players bear hugging each other at 2nd base and who did the best pimp job after hitting a HR while they were down 7 runs.”–
Tim, you hit right on the head what started going wrong with 2 other sports years ago and is now infecting MLB.. Let’s hope the bigwigs of THIS game will crush that nonsense and not allow this ancient game and allow “our” sport to become a laughingstock sideshow, as 2 other sports are now.
Another HR post by yourself and spot on.. As always.
@johnsilver….It appears you may have misread Tim and “baseball classic1985″‘s comments.
Can you please hire Grant Brisbee? He’s the only worthwhile guy at The Athletic.
FO – Why exclude women?
Jen McCaffrey is a fantastic writer for The Athletic, I would love to see her hired here.
Never read her. Why do you think I’m excluding women when I mention my favorite write. Some people look for conflict where there is none. If you’d read Brisbee, you’d understand.
Do you think Neil Armstrong was omitting the entire female population of humanity when he said, “One giant leap for all mankind”?
Oy…
Tim – As you know I love this place, but I do agree with others that perhaps a bit too much of the resources has been diverted to flooding articles with analytics.
Case in point, here’s an article where a player named “Moreno” is mentioned no less than SIX times ….. and not once is his first name mentioned in the article. He’s certainly not famous enough for everyone to know who is being talked about. I think that’s the sort of thing that has been contributing to a drop in traffic.
mlbtraderumors.com/2024/09/the-opener-al-wild-card…
To me this example is just an oversight akin to a typo. There’s nothing analytical in that post.
Tim – The oversight was both a missing first name and a missing link to the player’s Baseball-Reference page?
The general feedback I’m getting is the writers are instructed to focus most of their time, effort and attention on pulling numbers from Fangraphs etc which leaves them little time to concentrate on the non-statistical aspect of the articles.
I won’t attempt to speak for all readers, but I do know many many readers would prefer the writers focus mostly on completeness, accuracy, and interesting information to supplement articles rather than throwing in additional analytics.
Case in point, there was no mention in the Tito Francona article that he played for the Reds and really enjoyed the city and his time there. That’s kind of a key aspect in his decision to choose the Reds, no?
You all do a tremendous job delivering news and information, reporting rumors, explaining rules, explaining the financial side of baseball, etc. I’m just trying to give a partial explanation of why traffic is down, based on my observations and experiences. Perhaps do a poll on it?
I’ll be quiet now :O)
@Fever
I read and enjoy your comments but I think you might be missing the point, respectfully. MLBTR needs to smash out stories in a hurry in competition with other sites. The “hat tips’ are remarkably respectful in that environment.
By the way I’m a hypocritical bieast I was a subscriber and sent advice about retention policies to Tim. When I didn’t receive a reply, I chose not to renew.
Take care, Peter
It does seem like your beef is mostly with MLB itself, since like I said we’ve been stat-friendly since Day 1.
“Algebraic” makes it sound way more complicated than what it is, though. Saying a guy hits the ball hard, or strikes a lot of people out, or hits 35% better than league average – I’m sure you fully understand all those things.
Just subscribed. The whining post above was the nudge I needed.
Keep up the great work!
Used to have The Athletic until they started dropping their beat writers from certain teams and have gotten too big for their britches. This is a far better value and don’t mind paying for it. Keep up the good work!
The Athletic isn’t nearly as good as it used to be even though I like the current Yankees beat writers. Even their comment section has gone to crap.
Joe– I subscribed to TheAthlectic 2y also, but let it expire. Wasn’t just the quality of sports writing which declined, it was the rancid, ESPN-esque political rubbish that was writtten into most of the articles that made one want to puke. Why spend 50. (then) a year for the same garbage could read on the NYT, or WP?
Johnsilver I’ve heard that complaint from others as well. I haven’t had that experience so much. I guess it’s which writers I follow. Ken Rosenthal is the only one I read that could be considered on that but he’s been the same writer for as long as I have been reading his work.
I’m a satisfied subscriber, and support what you need to do to stay self-sustaining. You folks do good work, and I’m here for it every day.
I worked for a newspaper that gave its content away online for far too long. There was a lot of resistance to the paywall when it came, but eventually things settled down and a solid subscriber base emerged once people saw the value. You folks are professionals doing professional work, and professionals should get paid at professional salaries. Any path toward that end is justified and appreciated.
I joined this year. Money well spent I visit the site often. So much good info here. Thanks
I have been reading MLBTR for probably 15 years and check it multiple times a day. I generally don’t pay for news but I’m gonna have to strongly consider this Front Office subscription. Does it just automatically bill credit card or PayPal every year?
Also, it will be available on my phone and any computer? I guess there’s a login feature? I’m pretty technologically illiterate
@big
As long as you are signed into your account – phone or computer – you get all of the FO Subscription materials. And there is a “My Subscription” section where you can turn off auto renewal with the click of a button!
You do have to log in for it. It does function on your phone and computer.
It autorenews by default, but you can turn off autorenew easily.
Mr Dierkes;
Although I have no statistics, I’d guess that a major reason your traffic is down is due to that I’ve been writing recently: Your site is all about statistics and statistics lie. It’s rotisserie league-oriented.
Basic marketing says that it costs multiple times more to find a new customer than to retain old ones. I’ve been on here on-and-off for at least 6-7 years. The customers that come onto the comment sections and bring up baseball issues that they see watching games in-person or on media devices, are blitzed and ridiculed by kids that cite one or two stats to play “Gotcha”. Multiple people up-vote their posts and pile on with responses. I’m one of the few here that push back. Most just leave.
There are dozens of sites available on the Internet that have breaking MLB news. It’s nice that your people write these endless paragraphs detailing a transaction, but it’s too much. What they’re apparently trying to do is to add perspective. But quoting what a player did in previous years by citing statistics provides no perspective. It doesn’t say what role the player had on the team. How he was used by the manager. Whether he was battling minor injuries. What pitches he was having trouble with hitting or pitching. How his coaches influenced him. good or bad. Etc. What comes off is a review of past rotisserie league seasons. Baseball is a game of subtleties. It’s round with circles within circles. Your articles make it flat…. and this is before we get to the part that every team that didn’t make the WS was handcuffed by cheap owners that didn’t spend enough money in free agency.
Your Chatroom is the best place to talk MLB on the Internet that I’ve found. But your articles set the tone. They appeal to kids that played the sport on a computer and/or followed it in rotisserie league. People that actually watch the games and would like to read what fans in other cities think about their teams seldom read posters that provide any information they can’t get looking at stats on ESPN’s website….
So they leave.
Samuel- Would dearly like to see the term “rotisserie” banished forever from the world of baseball and back to use with cooked chicken.. Also? ANY reference at all of gambling, including adds for the same with regards to the sport of baseball.
If you don’t think we write about “what role the player had on the team. How he was used by the manager. Whether he was battling minor injuries,” etc, then you probably aren’t reading carefully. That’s crucial context to any major move.
In terms of what you want from a baseball hot stove site vs what you think you’re getting – that’s subjective, and certainly if you don’t see value I wouldn’t expect you to pay for our analysis or tools.
Here’s an example post. Read the whole thing, which Steve Adams created in real-time at about 2am, and then tell me what it’s missing.
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/twins-reach-agreement-s…
I have been a subscriber for years. For $30 bucks I get to enjoy a site that I visit multiple times per day, along with the PFR site as well. Do I enjoy baseball as much as 30 years ago when I was a kid? No, I don’t, but that has nothing to do with this site.
I think the first part of this post is missing the purpose of this site. This isn’t a place where people necessarily go to looking for original thoughts about the game. MLBTR does provide those things on occasion, but my understanding that the main purpose of MLBTR is to be a one-stop-shop to keep up with the moves being made around the game in terms of players and front office.
There are plenty of other sites out there that provide analysis of the game. MLBTR has the market cornered in aggregating the news as it happens and puts it out in digestible bites. I don’t think that it would necessarily be advisable for them to distance themselves from that when it’s what got them here and remains what most visitors to the site return for.
You can pen one of these articles, with serious statistics and analysis, serious commentary, and at least a bit of wit?
If so, why aren’t YOU writing for free somewhere?
I think it’s just…both. Some want pure aggregation, some want more.
What actions have we taken that distance us from covering the news?
No Tim! , I wasn’t talking to you, but to that fool. think you guys are great!
I was telling HIM, that your articles are worth paying for… and I’m very happy to pay for them.
I’m the guy who wants you to hire Grant Brisbee…
Why are most teams having record attendance then? I personally love statcast and analytics and most baseball fans I know do too. I am forty so I don’t think it is an age thing. I just think some of you that don’t like analytics have an old time mindset but it is true that almost everyone who hates on analytics in my cubs fb group is over sixty. So who knows.
It basically boils down to BaseballClassic1985 does not know why he is here, but he hates it.
@Pauly….Population growth makes record numbers relevant to a degree. Whether it’s record ticket sales of a sports team or a movie or people voting, it’s not too relevant without context.
But I know, it’s a semi-geeky math thing. Most people thing a decade is counted zero to nine and not one to ten, yet I digress.
Gross record numbers of anything isn’t too indicative of anything other than significant change outside expected variance has not occurred, yet.
Tim, I really appreciated the honesty in this post. Most Companies don’t provide any support for decisions to implement a paywall or to increase prices. They just do it. Thank you for being straightforward with us. That’s rare these days. I will strongly consider subscribing.
Hey Trade Rumors Team! Have loved the content since what seems like the beginning of the internet. Would be willing to go to a paid version, if for no other reason than to show you love for so many years of free content, buuuuuut are you ever going to fix the glitch that causes whatever sound (music,podcasts, etc) playing on my phone to stop when I scroll an article in your app?
I cannot fathom paying someone to read articles in an app that has such an annoying bug that it seems like every other app ever has been able to overcome. I’ve gently brought this up for years. Please fix it. Not only is keeping a paying subscriber away, it keeps me from reading content that is free. I’m literally being annoyed by this bug right now. Please.
I signed up because good stuff is worth paying for…White Sox tickets, on the other hand…
There are only so many subscriptions a person can afford to pay for. Old man that i am i cannot afford cable, streaming sports services, paywall publications or to attend games live. So except for the occasion free game on broadcast tv that i can find, its hard to be a fan. Sometimes games come in on the radio at nght. I am four hours or more to the closest mlb team. Its not like it was. We were all baseball fans years ago. Could get into minor league bleachers for a quarter. Now they want $25 plus $10 parking. Baseball has passed old timers like me by. I wont see my favorite team in the playoffs unless it makes the World Series. You all will get frozen out someday too. Goodthing i can see little league for free and legion ball is only $3 to get in. Its sad. But so it is as a poor old man living alone on a fixed income in retirement.
An afterthought. My local minor league ticket prices are beyond my reach. But they added all sorts of expensive tech, internet access, phone app ordering, cashless payment. Fancier seats and bars and all sorts of stuff that had nothing to do with the game being played. They argue that social spaces and new tech and lots of alcohol are necessary to attract young casual fans. But it has driven up ticket prices. Plus some tickets require prepaid food vouchers. Its not a baseball game anymore. Its a hi tech social event. And itd expensive. But really, do we need all that stuff? I don’t. But now I don’t go.
I just bought a car, for the first time since 2002, and even in 2002, I was getting a pretty fancy vehicle, now it’s like a video game on wheels.
How hard is it to get something that goes from point A to point B reliably and comfortably?
So your point is entirely valid
Classic – The good teams do charge a premium, but the bad teams can be very inexpensive to attend games.
My Red Sox were charging only $79.99 for 4-packs that included box seats, free hot dogs and free drinks. That comes out to like $8 a ticket when you subtract the normal cost of the food & beverage.
The Jays were selling hot dogs for $1 each and tickets for $2 each.
That’s why I always say, you can’t go by just attendance. There’s lots of tricks for inflating attendance figures. Revenue is far more important.
Fever– Reminds me of a funny promo Bill Veeck used to run at EVERY club he ever owned.. 5c beer.. His last club was the ChiSox u know.. Wonder how well 5c beer would do with that disaster of a club in ’25? Think something exciting would occur? HAHA
john – That reminds me of 10 cent beer night in Cleveland, we all know how that turned out.
I’ve been to many parks, but I wouldn’t buy beer at Fenway. Why? Because when all the other teams went to plastic bottles, the Red Sox continued with the small cups and worst of all they REFUSED to provide lids because they knew anyone buying more than one would end up spilling about a third of it by the time they got to their seat. It’s all tricks all the time with them.
Almost everything is free on the internet including baseball games.
Mlbtv a free app has something called the free game of the day. Multiple times a year they have free weekends. On mother’s day they sell you just about every single game of the remaining season for well under $100 bucks. If you can’t budget to save $100 a year I have some bad news as you will be soon living on the streets. And if you are capable of reading and typing you can get a part time job to make thousands a year. You can get every mlb game on online radio for like $30 a year. Enjoying baseball is one of the cheapest hobbies there is.
You can start a go fund me and just put I’m a poor old man living alone on a fixed income in retirement. Please give me a $100 so I can watch every baseball game.
Or simply type how to watch baseball games for free.
MLB Finishes 2024 Season With Highest Attendance in Seven Years
Anytime there is a subscription requirement, the quality of those in that group increases. I have a subscription that’s $20 a month and the difference between the people unwilling to spend vs. those willing to invest is huge.
I’m willing to spend money for the quality I get here. You guys are great. When you do increase the price I’ll be sticking around.
$20 is half my weekly grocery budget. Despite what my millennial and gen x friends, most working class boomers did not retire rich and live in gated golf courses community.we budget, do without and hope if we get sick we’ll die rather than have crushing medical debt. Your time is coming.
I’m a boomer too. My time is here, it’s not coming. But here’s the thing, instead of waiting to get sick and hope I die I live my life full throttle. There’s a reason people don’t like us boomers, it’s because most of us act like a bunch of Karens.
You choose to have a $40 grocery budget. It’s clear you can read, type, have internet, and free time. I’d rather spend less and do nothing as well. But if you wanted to you could make more $. If you can drive and or do basic household work you have even more options to make $. It would be awesome if you could retire and be able to not work. And you still can. Tons of hobbies that are profitable. If you want to live on ramen and spend your time on here complaining about how poor you are that’s fine. Just saying you have options.
Right on man. There’s never been a time in history to find a gig job and do some work. My fellow boomers need to get at it, make it happen, or just be cool with it. We talk shiz about millennials but the ones in our business community are on fire.
Is there good writing anywhere online? Even if you are a good writer you are forced to keyword spam for search results traffic which makes it poor writing.
To not want analytics is to say you don’t want as much information that is available. Yet you accuse someone else of having a low iq.
Yes, I read them, and then I decided to meet you. Have a nice day Mr Classic.
Has there been any thought to partnering with an on-demand merch printer? You tell me where I can get a Tee/hoodie/swag with MLBTR on it, and I’ll tell you all 16 numbers of my credit card.
There is a larger social issue here, and that is the idea that if something is available for free, there’s no need to pay for it. But it’s really not available for free. Somebody has to write it, somebody has to do it, and almost all the stuff that is worth watching is literally worth paying for.
The blogs at SB nation are good or bad depending on the team, the Mariners site, “lookout landing” is incredible but the angels site, “halos Haven” has practically shut down.
Good content is worth paying for. Just because you can find something similar for nothing doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay for the good stuff and this is good stuff.
I get it but such a move will further reduce your traffic. Then you’ll find something else to put behind the Front Office fire wall. Eventually MLBTR will be subscription only. When that happens you will lose me.
It’s less than $2.50 a month. Why expect these guys to work for free?
Bravo. Worth every penny.
The people who come on to comment and don’t pay, I don’t get it. It’s not that expensive. Support MLBTR with a subscription!
Still my favorite website and app, keep up the great work. The nominal annual fee is well worth the price!
I have been a subscriber for two years now and it’s the best investment for sports news I ever made. No problem at all with you putting this behind a paywall. Keep up the great work.
Proud and happy to say that I have been spending the $2.99 for all 4 years. Great insights, great content. Looking forward to more.
Best 30 bucks I ever spent
What I’d like to see is the ability to post a comment put behind the paywall, Tim.
While some of the comments here are quite interesting, my sense is that far too many of them (more than half?) are trolls wasting the time of those of us who are actually interested in savvy baseball opinions or insights.
Trolls having arguments and hurling personal insults have really deterred me from reading comments on most articles If you wanna use this site to troll, at least ante up the $30 a year for MLBTR giving you the platform.
Yes, this. For better or worse part of the reason I come here is to interact with other baseball fans. I’ve noticed in the last couple of years there are a few people who just come here to troll and bully. I’m sure it’s not a large amount, but they are definitely ruining the website a bit.
Jingle, jingle, coins when they mingle it’s such a beautiful sound.
As a long term reader who posts from time to time, there indeed seems to be a template to the writing in articles here. Words for the sake of words, long articles that could be cut in half or 3-quarters and state the same thing. Stating the obvious and understood repeatedly is not good writing.
Another issue is the comments format. It’s antiquated and bad from the get-go. The reply feature should automatically denote to whom the reply is directed. Too often problems arise from the absence of this common sense feature.
Additionally, there’s far too many trolls and not enough serious, thoughtful commenting. If you want to regain traffic and revenue, make some changes to attract users on the front end – the free section. You’re bleeding users and need to look in the mirror. Be short and concise, and make the comments section user-centric. Over the longer term you’ll attract more candidates willing to pay should you clean up the entry point.
Additionally, automatically closing the comments section to articles about serious subjects involving players such as domestic violence, is rather short-sighted and lost opportunity to deal with real life. You’re giving into trolls, the childish and the unserious – and miss the moment – by locking out important dialogue and undervaluing female readers and commenters that could also grow this website even if altruism isn’t your primary focus here.