Somehow the top two free agents haven't inked a deal even though it's been three months since the season ended. I don't even know how this is possible.

To Harper and Machado: You don't need 9 figures to get by for the rest of your life.

To the owners: Stop being stupid and sign them already. After all you want to play baseball and win, right?

Tbh the MLB needs to do something about this because it's becoming a serious problem as of late with the whole last minute deals happening. If either Harper or Machado don't have a team in four days the baseball world is gonna be really disappointed.

Not at all, I'm so tired of it and I'm tired of the notifications from bleacher report, mlb, espn and whoever else saying that they saw Harper eating a cheese steak or Machado wearing white sox instead of his normal black. Just sign somewhere already. Two years in a row free agency has been very boring. As a Brewer fan last off season was great, as a baseball fan it was very boring. 

So many people want to cry that the owners are being cheap and I totally disagree.  With the amount of data and info the teams have why would they overpay for anyone?  Baseball is a business, and one of the first rules of business is that you need to know you are replaceable.  Baseball will go on if Harper and Machado never sign.  You can get emotional about players all you want.  I do it sometimes too, but this is absurd.  8 years 250M is on the table for Manny and he seems to not even be considering it.  The market defines your value, and right now, Harper and Manny refuse to acknowledge that.  Their loss. 

We are all annoyed that Harper and Machado aren't landed with a team yet.

I just wish they implement some sort of deadline free agents must sign by. The past 2-3 off seasons have been terrible. I was so excited to see this off season and not only Harper and machado have yet to sign. But what about Kimbrel, Kuechel, and some other tier free agents pitchers and catchers report this week... everyone is signing except these big names. Melky signed today, homer bailey signed yesterday, i just hope they sign soon.

I am not annoyed or mad that they have not signed. I am getting tired of the news being the same every day, re-hashing the same tired story over and over. 

Not annoyed... TIRED of hearing about them. They are not worth what they are asking for and they are only limiting their own options by thinking they will get 10 years and over 300 + million.

Harper is inconsistent and his defense is awful.

Machado is more consistent and talent is off the charts but he's a dumbass...

The longer they take to sign, the greedier they look. 

It may lead to a strike down the line hopefully not

So if Harper turned down 300 million from Washington,  what kind of numbers can trout expect when it's his turn

So many people want to cry that the owners are being cheap and I totally disagree.  With the amount of data and info the teams have why would they overpay for anyone?  Baseball is a business, and one of the first rules of business is that you need to know you are replaceable.  Baseball will go on if Harper and Machado never sign.  You can get emotional about players all you want.  I do it sometimes too, but this is absurd.  8 years 250M is on the table for Manny and he seems to not even be considering it.  The market defines your value, and right now, Harper and Manny refuse to acknowledge that.  Their loss. 

Comment by dynnk
about 9 hours ago

Yup, this is how I see it as well.

Nobody is worth these kind of contracts. I don't care how talented they are.

Besides baseball is a team sport, not sure either one of these guys can guarantee a championship to the team they go to. Improve odds, yeah, but not win it all for them as a fact.

yes. You’re literally the only person. Lonely hearts club, table for one. 

So many people want to cry that the owners are being cheap and I totally disagree.  With the amount of data and info the teams have why would they overpay for anyone?  Baseball is a business, and one of the first rules of business is that you need to know you are replaceable.  Baseball will go on if Harper and Machado never sign.  You can get emotional about players all you want.  I do it sometimes too, but this is absurd.  8 years 250M is on the table for Manny and he seems to not even be considering it.  The market defines your value, and right now, Harper and Manny refuse to acknowledge that.  Their loss. 

Comment by dynnk
about 11 hours ago

Yup, this is how I see it as well.

Nobody is worth these kind of contracts. I don't care how talented they are.

Besides baseball is a team sport, not sure either one of these guys can guarantee a championship to the team they go to. Improve odds, yeah, but not win it all for them as a fact.

Comment by nflman2033
about 2 hours ago

It’s not a guarantee but I’d like the Reds chances a lot more if they signed Harper or Machado lol. How about Keuchel? You don’t think he makes the Reds a lot better? Are they gonna sign him? Nope. I’d rather the players get the money then the billionaire owners who can’t even be bothered to pay for their own stadiums. 

I agree it probably shouldn’t go to 1 player. They should pay minor leaguers a living wage. 

Both players will sign when the right team makes the right offer. I'm definitely not annoyed. The longer it takes them to sign I feel that other teams (preferably my Mets) can reevaluate if they need one or the other preferably Harper because he could easily fit in RF... granted the infield would be clogged but we'll see how that goes... in the back of my mind I have a feeling that one or both of these guys somehow end up with the Yankees once the dust settles.

So many people want to cry that the owners are being cheap and I totally disagree.  With the amount of data and info the teams have why would they overpay for anyone?  Baseball is a business, and one of the first rules of business is that you need to know you are replaceable.  Baseball will go on if Harper and Machado never sign.  You can get emotional about players all you want.  I do it sometimes too, but this is absurd.  8 years 250M is on the table for Manny and he seems to not even be considering it.  The market defines your value, and right now, Harper and Manny refuse to acknowledge that.  Their loss. 

Comment by dynnk
about 11 hours ago

Yup, this is how I see it as well.

Nobody is worth these kind of contracts. I don't care how talented they are.

Besides baseball is a team sport, not sure either one of these guys can guarantee a championship to the team they go to. Improve odds, yeah, but not win it all for them as a fact.

Comment by nflman2033
about 2 hours ago

It’s not a guarantee but I’d like the Reds chances a lot more if they signed Harper or Machado lol. How about Keuchel? You don’t think he makes the Reds a lot better? Are they gonna sign him? Nope. I’d rather the players get the money then the billionaire owners who can’t even be bothered to pay for their own stadiums. 

I agree it probably shouldn’t go to 1 player. They should pay minor leaguers a living wage. 

Comment by CincyRedlegs3219
12 minutes ago

I said improved odds, but not going to guarantee anything.

Yes I think right now Reds have shot at winning record, adding another piece like Keuchel or Kluber could mean playoffs, but doesn't mean they are winning it all. No one player is going to win it all for a team. This isnt basketball, one guy out of 5 has way more impact than 1 of 9

Simple inflation would tell us ARod's contract would be worth $367 million today.  And that's not taking into account that baseball's revenues have increased almost 275% since 2000 meaning today's top contract should be in the neighborhood of $665 million.

It's not the players that are being greedy and unreasonable...

As a White Sox fan, it's hard to be waiting on a guy that's chasing the dollar.  If he wanted to be here, he'd be in Chicago already.  I was not fond of them going after Machado to begin with, but he is a generational talent, but his on field antics don't sit well with a lot of fans.  If he does sign with the Sox, that will jumpstart their rebuild significantly faster, so that's what I am hoping for.

It's amazing to me how once you change the dollars and the profession people don't care about the players.  If I was one of the best people at my profession and had multiple companies pursuing me I would want the best compensation I could find.  If I knew these companies were offering me less that what other people in my profession were making 10 years ago and profits have gone up, I'd be holding out as well.

I don't watch baseball for the owners, I watch the players.  While I understand the owners foot the bill, they require the services of these players to draw fans to spend money and watch the product.  It's remarkably unbalanced how owners can manipulate service time to eat up realistically the best years of a player at a significantly lower cost, to then not be willing to compensate them for their production they got so cheap and holding their age against them.  

We aren't talking about old veterans, these are two 26 year olds in their absolute primes.  It was just four years ago Stanton signed his 13/325mil deal and he posed far more concerns than Harper or Machado.  Everyone is talking out of both sides of their mouths with Harper.  If you look at the advanced metrics these owners and GM's are being praised for using, Harper is far from inconsistent.  He's had one season under 3 WAR in 2014 when he tore his UCL in his thumb.  His career 140 wRC+ and .382 wOBA are both top ten in MLB since his rookie year in 2012. Machado is being blasted as dirty and lazy, but his metrics hold up against pretty much anybody as well.  Outside of the Nationals who have the most skin in the game, the rest of MLB is trying to lowball these guys to get them to forgo long term security.    

I fully understand ownership being wary of paying a 31 or 32 year old player a 7+ year contract for big money, but again Harper and Machado are far from that.  Something is going to have to give or we're going to see another work stoppage and steroids won't be there to bail MLB out again.  

As a tigers fan I don’t care where either of them sign, the problem is Harper not getting a deal done has held back a nick castellanos trade and that’s what gets me. The losers of the Harper sweepstakes is who the tigers were gonna look to trade him to

Scott Boras, or whoever Harper's agent is, screwed up.  He didn't understand the market, and now his client is in a bad spot.  He should have accepted the National's offer.  

Why couldn't someone do seven years at 35 million per year?  That's 245 million, and the team should still basically have the player in his prime the entire time.  You aren't going to have those miserable last few years like you do with the Pujols contract. 

JD Martinez signed Feb 26 last year. Hosmer signed on the 19th.

Why couldn't someone do seven years at 35 million per year?  That's 245 million, and the team should still basically have the player in his prime the entire time.  You aren't going to have those miserable last few years like you do with the Pujols contract. 

Comment by Fenian_1916
22 minutes ago

Because they all want that A-Rod, Pujols, Cabrera, Stanton, length and value of contract. At this point, Owners have wised up and realized that is a HUGE mistake. 

Why couldn't someone do seven years at 35 million per year?  That's 245 million, and the team should still basically have the player in his prime the entire time.  You aren't going to have those miserable last few years like you do with the Pujols contract. 

Comment by Fenian_1916
43 minutes ago

Teams don't want to lock themselves into long term deals when they don't have too.  Bryce and Manny are the rare exceptions to what usually happens in MLB.  Most players don't appear until 22 or 23 at the youngest.  So when 6 years of service time is up they are at 29 or 30 by the time they hit FA.  More often than not now instead of risking this uncertain FA market they will sign team friendly extensions to guarantee money over a longer stretch of time incase the player would suffer an injury or decline. 

Paul Goldschmidt is a perfect example.  He was 25 during his first full season and has been basically a 5+ WAR player every year since.  Because of the crap Arbitration process that exists he accepted an extension that upped his pre arb contract price but locked in his Arb years and his first year of FA eligibility.  He outplayed that contract every step of the way.  Now he's entering his age 32 season and faces a FA market that is not friendly for players at his position or age anymore.  This is despite his pedigree of performance and durability.  He's more than likely not ever going to see a contract that paid him remotely close to what he is worth as a player.  It's a broken system.

Guaranteed 10 year deals are just stupid business for any team. It's fine that they want to hold out for those years/money, but any team that actually gives them an 8+ year guaranteed deal is just asking for possible financial trouble.