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10:00pm: Some Boras clients, it seems, will participate in the union’s camp, per Ken Rosenthal (Twitter links). He quotes Boras:

“A question arose as to where our clients would work out. Our clients will certainly take advantage of the union facilities as their schedule allows. Where they work out is a individual choice based upon convenience. Understandably, the camps do not allow our training staff to attend and many of our clients are comfortable continuing their [Spring Training] routines and preparation at one of Boras Corps facilities.”

Feb. 8, 1:46pm: The MLBPA camp is taking shape. Rosenthal reports (links to Twitter account) that it’ll be held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Here are a few additional details that the union has provided in an email that Rosenthal obtained:

• Bo Porter will lead the proceedings; no personal trainers will be allowed
• the union is arranging travel, housing, per diems, and insurance
• camp will open next Wednesday and run through at least March 4th

Interestingly, some players under contract are expected to partake before reporting to their respective organizations’ camps. That’s intended as a “show of support,” says Rosenthal, but at present it does not sound as if any players intend to miss any time with their teams.

Importantly, clients of Scott Boras are not expected to participate, per ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter link). The super-agent, who represents many of the top remaining free agents, says that he’ll continue to rely upon his and his clients’ own resources “to make sure our players are prepared when they reach agreements.”

Feb. 7: With more than 100 players unsigned in the week before Spring Training is set to kick off, the Major League Baseball Players Association is laying the groundwork to host training camps for free agents, reports Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that a Spring Training for free agents “will happen.” Meanwhile, Brown’s colleague, Jeff Passan, tweets that a camp for unsigned players could kick off as soon as next Tuesday — the same day that many pitchers and catchers around the league will begin reporting to their teams’ respective Spring Training camps.

To be clear, while there are indeed more than 100 players that logged 50+ plate appearances or 20+ innings last year who remain unsigned, not all of those players would be reasonably expected to sign a Major League deal even in a more conventional offseason. MLBTR’s Free Agent Tracker for the 2017-18 offseason reveals 110 players who’ve not yet agreed to a deal, though nearly half of the players on that list seem unlikely to sign a big league deal either due to poor performance, lack of track record or injury. That said, there are still as many as 50 fairly clear-cut candidates for Major League deals, plus another handful of borderline options that could go either way in most offseasons. It’s not clear exactly how many free agents would attend a voluntary camp for unsigned players.

The union, according to Brown, is eyeing locations in both Arizona and Florida, with Bradenton’s IMG Baseball Academy one potential location. The MLBPA is also trying to find coaches and other personnel to help staff the facility and create an atmosphere that resembles a traditional Spring Training setting as closely as possible.

If (or perhaps more appropriately, when) a training camp for unemployed players ultimately comes to be, it’ll mark the first time that such measures have been necessary since 1995, when unsigned players organized a similar camp during MLB’s most recent labor stoppage. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick recently took a look back at that ’95 training camp, speaking to D-backs hitting coach Dave Magadan, who was one of the free agents that participated in the camp, about the experience.

We’re looking to add part-time contributors to the Pro Football Rumors writing team. The position pays on an hourly basis. Applicants must meet ALL of the following criteria:

• Exceptional knowledge of all 32 NFL teams, with no discernible bias.
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• Weeknight availability (5-11 pm central time Monday-Friday) is also a plus.
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If you’re interested, email pfrapplications@gmail.com by February 9 (11:00pm central time) and take a couple of paragraphs to explain why you qualify and stand out. Many will apply, so unfortunately we cannot respond to every applicant.

Player agent Brodie Van Wagenen took aim at MLB owners on Friday regarding this year’s historically slow-moving open market. Reactions to the lack of free agent activity this winter have continued to pour in since, including from MLBPA executive director Tony Clark.

“For decades free agency has been the cornerstone of baseball’s economic system & has benefited Players and the game alike,” Clark said. “Each time it has been attacked, Players, their representatives & the Association have united to defend it. That will never change.”

Clark’s remarks come at a time of growing unrest from the players, many of whom have voiced their displeasure with the fact that owners aren’t opening their checkbooks for free agents this winter. One prominent example is Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who, despite signing a five-year, $80MM contract a winter ago, recently raised the idea of the players going on strike when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in December 2021. His teammate Rich Hill, who also received a big payday last offseason (three years, $48MM), told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe last week that “how the free agent market has been going has been disconcerting this offseason and a lot of players are concerned about it.” Hill called the situation “really bad” and noted that “players just want what’s fair.”

As FanGraphs’ Craig Edwards pointed out Friday, the majors’ cumulative payroll is almost sure to stagnate or decrease compared to 2017, even though all 30 owners received a $50MM payout this year from MLB’s sale of BAMTech to Disney. To this point of the offseason, only two of MLBTR’s top 10 free agents – the Brewers’ Lorenzo Cain (five years, $80MM) and the Rockies’ Wade Davis (three years, $52MM) – have found teams. Of MLBTR’s pre-offseason top 50 free agents, nearly half are currently unsigned, which is staggering given that the market opened three months ago and spring training is only a few weeks away.

Like their fellow agent Van Wagenen, Seth Levinson of ACES and Joshua Kusnick of Double Diamond Sports Management spoke out against the current state of affairs Friday. In a statement of his own (via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic), Levinson offered:

“There is a bond that exists between Clubs and its fan base. The integrity of that time-honored relationship is predicated upon the good faith effort of the Club to compete to the best of its ability. The CBA which defines the relationship between Clubs and Players is a good faith effort to create and assure that there is a competitive balance among all Clubs so that the greater good and best interests of the game are served.

“There may be legitimate reasons for the problems that players have encountered in this market. That said, there is no Industry in this country where competing businesses act in virtually an identical manner. It is disconcerting, and disheartening for Clubs that are awash in revenue and or are fully capable of improving its product to choose to do otherwise. Jerry Dipoto so eloquently made the point that there may be more Clubs competing for the 1st pick in the June Amateur Draft than for the World Series.”

As Van Wagenen and Levinson did, Kusnick (via Twitter) suggested that collusion is at play, saying “it is impossible” for him to believe that all 30 teams are suddenly evaluating players the same. He went on to reveal that he has six major league free agents who are currently seeking minors deals, contending that the freeze at the top of the market is preventing teams from showing much interest in lesser FAs.

“It really does trickle down to A-ball, and I have never dealt with anything like this in 15 years,” continued Kusnick, who added that “ownership has historically attempted to subvert the players’ ability to earn the maximum amount of dollars for their services. And just because we have enjoyed an unprecedented stretch of labor peace that has benefited both sides does not mean the players are oblivious to the realities that this market has presented. The MLBPA and players have been tested before but have never broken. It will not happen this time either.”

Kusnick closed with “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” which could be a warning toward owners that players will strike again – as they most recently did in 1994-95 – if necessary. The game’s latest work stoppage resulted in the loss of an entire season two-plus decades ago, and we may be headed down a similar road within the next few years if the league and the union don’t start finding common ground by then. With commissioner Rob Manfred pushing to implement pace-of-play changes that most players are less than thrilled with, the relationship between the sides is seemingly on the verge of getting even worse.

In perhaps the greatest show of player unrest of the entire offseason, Brodie Van Wagenen — the co-head of CAA Baseball and one of the game’s most prominent agents — issued a statement today stating that ownership behavior in the 2017-18 offseason “feels coordinated” and referencing a level of player unity against ownership that hasn’t been seen since the most recent MLB labor stoppage back in 1994:

In 2017, the Players were content with a status quo Collective Bargaining Agreement. They enjoyed a 23% increase in their average salary from 2012 ($3.2M) to 2017 ($4.1M).

The average salary grew from $2.8M in 2007 to $3.2M in 2012 (just 13.8% growth). That is a 9.2% increase from the last CBA, during Tony Clark’s first four years as the Executive Director of the Players Association. $100M guaranteed contracts were regular occurrences. $200M contracts: yes. $300M: yes. Not bad by any measure. Free enterprise at its best.

The getting was good for both Players and Owners during an economic boom in the sports industry, based in large part to the value of live content in the entertainment landscape. Yes, Baseball is entertainment and too often teams forget about the audience they serve.

However, the behavior of Owners in this year’s free agent market has changed dramatically. It feels coordinated, rightly or wrongly. Many club Presidents and General Managers with whom we negotiate with are frustrated with the lack of funds to sign the plethora of good players still available, raising further suspicion of institutional influence over the spending. Even the algorithms that have helped determine player salaries in recent years are suggesting dramatically higher values than owners appear willing to spend.

Bottom line, the players are upset. No, they are outraged. Players in the midst of long-term contracts are as frustrated as those still seeking employment. Their voices are getting louder and they are uniting in a way not seen since 1994.

I would suggest that testing the will of 1,200 alpha males at the pinnacle of their profession is not a good strategy for 30 men who are bound by a much smaller fraternity. These 1,200 players have learned first-hand that battles are won through teamwork, and they understand that Championships can’t be achieved by individuals. They are won by a group united by a singular focus. Victory at all costs. They are willing to sweat for it; they are willing to sacrifice for it; they are willing to cry for it; and most importantly, they are willing to bleed for it.

There is a rising tide among players for radical change. A fight is brewing. And it may begin with one, maybe two, and perhaps 1,200 willing to follow. A boycott of Spring Training may be a starting point, if behavior doesn’t change.

Players don’t receive their paychecks until the second week of April. Fine them? OK, for how much? Sue them? OK, they’ll see you in court two years from now. At what expense?

Baseball offers 4,881 dates of live content annually across 27 media markets. Franchise values are at all-time highs. Fans want to see the best players competing at the highest level.

Sign them;
Play them;
Celebrate them;
and then sit back and let them entertain us the way they have more than 100 years.

Van Wagenen’s statements come at a time when there are more than half the league is positioned to head into the 2018 season with lower payrolls than they carried in 2017. As Yahoo’s Jeff Passan detailed this morning, the rebuilding Tigers lead the pack with a payroll that has been slashed by $77.2MM, while the Phillies ($48.2MM), Rangers ($43.3MM), Orioles ($43.1MM) and Dodgers ($40.1MM) have all cut payroll by more than $40MM on a year-over-year basis. Beyond that group, the Yankees, Royals, White Sox and Marlins have all cut their annual payroll by a sum in excess of $30MM.

To be fair, some of those clubs have spent — just not to levels commensurate with past payrollss. The Phillies and Carlos Santana, for instance, agreed to a three-year, $60MM deal. The Phils also agreed to two-year pacts with Pat Neshek and Tommy Hunter. The Rangers, meanwhile, have made their own share of free-agent signings (Mike Minor, Doug Fister, Tony Barnette, Chris Martin).

Several teams, Passan notes — the Marlins, Orioles, Braves, Pirates and Rays — haven’t signed a single Major League free agent this offseason. While the Orioles, who are said to be looking for three starters and a right fielder, certainly figure to do so eventually, it’s a troublesome development for players that one sixth of the league has sat out the open market entirely.

Certainly, a few of the clubs with projected payroll decreases have tried to spend, as well; the Royals, for instance, have reportedly made a seven-year offer to bring Eric Hosmer back to Kansas City. That unsuccessful overture cannot be ignored, nor can the reported five-year offers for J.D. Martinez and Yu Darvish.

But, while (some of) the top names on the market have received lucrative offers, it’s been quieter yet for mid-range free agents that may have, in the past, expected more modest multi-year and even one-year commitments. I’ve had multiple representatives of “middle class” free agents privately express concerns to me this offseason that resemble those voiced by Van Wagenen today, though none has gone so far as to imply the possibility of a labor stoppage.

Obviously, a measure so extreme can only come from the players. But, the fact that such a prominent voice among player representatives has felt enough frustration on behalf of not only his own clients, but all 1200 players on 40-man rosters throughout the league, further underscores a level of tension between players and owners that is approaching historic levels. (For reference, CAA’s free agents this winter include Todd Frazier, Andrew Cashner, Jason Vargas, Matt Belisle, Jon Jay, Andre Ethier and outfielder Chris Young, as can be seen in MLBTR’s Agency Database).

To be clear, there’s yet to be any formal accusation of collusion, nor, more importantly, has there been any proof of the matter. Rather, we’ve seen arguments that run counter to that very notion — some from players themselves — suggesting that the small-scale increase to the luxury tax, the hard cap on draft/international spending and the link between draft compensation and free agency have all disincentivized teams from spending. Those were bargained into the CBA during negotiations between the league and the union, of course, and those factors play no small part in what has been a glacial offseason that has left a significant portion of the industry baffled and divided at a historic high-point for MLB revenues.