Freddy Get Ready

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Buster Olney reports that the Mets have interest in Freddy.



I'd totally get behind this if I were them, use Pete as a DH...or trade him for something gigantic

[bmfc1]

...rock steady.



He's 32, likely wants 6 years, and it displaces Pete for at least half the games. It also means that Billy has to find a new home for Dom, plus figure out what to do with Cano (eat it?) as the DH spot is now filled--Pete or FF... but he'd be great in the Mets lineup.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

As you'll all surely remember I had a very successful Fantasy team with 4 first basemen (Freddy, Votto, Belt & Smith) so it can be totally be done

[bmfc1]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: As you'll all surely remember I had a very successful Fantasy team with 4 first basemen (Freddy, Votto, Belt & Smith) so it can be totally be done

Good precedent! Tell Billy to make it happen!

[kcmets]

So how do things like this happen? Pete deserves a phone call* or two first, right?

Or is it, baseball is big business and you'll play where we tell you to play and like it.



"Hey Pete, we're thinking of adding Freeman and it looks like you'll be DH'ng a lot.

What think you?"



"Fuck yeah, make it happen!"

or

"I worked my ass of to become a solid defensive player and now you're sitting me out?"



*(that phone call would have to come post CBA-signing I guess)

[MFS62]

If they do it, I would hope he hits well enough here to name one of his kids "Citi".

Later

[Edgy MD]

Downside of Freddy Freeman is Don Mattingly from 1990 onward.



Downside of Pete Alonso is Chris Davis from 2016 onward.



That's mostly educated guesswork, but I tend to think that the Mets of recent vintage have tended to look at decisions from the perspective of where they will be if things break bad like that, but that may be less so under Cohen.

[Frayed Knot]

As stories about him NOT re-upping with the Braves have become more prevalent as the winter progressed, it would certainly pay to talk to him.

1B, though, obviously not the most important need and I REALLY hope they're not just doing this simply to 'steal' him from the Yanquis.

[Edgy MD]

It's really a shame that this is even coming up. The Braves put together this great lineup and won a championship despite Ronald Acuña, Travis d'Arnaud, and Marcell Azuna missing most of the season/post-season.

[Frayed Knot]

At the beginning of the off-season, Freddie's return to Atlanta was considered a virtual certainty.

I'm not sure what happened but the 'He may not' stories started slowly and have only picked up steam since.

[seawolf17]

I wonder how much of this is "we need to talk about SOMETHING" rather than actual news.

[bmfc1]

Edgy MD wrote: It's really a shame that this is even coming up. The Braves put together this great lineup and won a championship despite Ronald Acuña, Travis d'Arnaud, and Marcell Azuna missing most of the season/post-season.

I'm curious as to why is this a "shame" to a Mets fan? As a generic baseball fan, as a Braves fan, sure. As a Mets fan, it is frigging fantastic! He can go to the MFYs for all I care as long as he doesn't resign with ATL (WSH and MIA wouldn't sign him and I don't think that PHI is interested).

[Edgy MD]

It's a crappy system that forces teams to make anti-competitive decisions.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I wonder how much of this is "we need to talk about SOMETHING" rather than actual news.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

[Fman99]

I wonder how much of this is "we need to talk about SOMETHING" rather than actual news. Ding! Ding! Ding!

Yeah, seconded. He's not coming to NY. This is sports journalist masturbation set to type. Nothing to see here.

[Edgy MD]

For all we know, he's already got a deal in place with Atlanta that can't be announced.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Our lineup would rock all the casbahs with Freddy tho

[Edgy MD]

For all we know, he's already got a deal in place with the Mets that can't be announced.

[Gwreck]

Edgy MD wrote: It's a crappy system that forces teams to make anti-competitive decisions.

I dispute that teams are “forced” to do so (and certainly not the Braves).

[Edgy MD]

It's a crappy system that incentivizes teams to make anti-competitive decisions?

[bmfc1]

I would respectfully say that it "allows" teams to make anti-competitive decisions, because of revenue sharing of national TV deals and merch, etc.

[Frayed Knot]

I don't see where 'the system' is forcing or incentivizing anything. The Braves (assuming this break becomes real) are making a decision that they don't want him or that they don't want him at his asking price. StL made that same call at a similar age with Pujols and were better for it.

[Edgy MD]

The system under which MLB plays creates artificial market constraints on younger players' salary and freedom. This not only screws over younger players, it screws over older players too, whose bargaining leverage makes the pursuit of those without such leverage much more attractive.



So after they reach their six-year tenure, the truly best players find themselves attractive only to the wealthiest of teams, and the merely good players find jobs really really scarce. This is what the system incentivizes.



And the middle class disappears. Our eyes pop at the astronomical salaries earned by a special group of players, but payrolls have generally flat-lined over the last decade or so, while MLB revenues have gone up something like 17 years in a row, up until the Covid interruption.



The teams that fail to compete for such players can't really fail. Losing is rewarded with pooled revenues and high draft picks, their license to operate in MLB remains, fans are patient, and you can try in earnest a few years later just to occasionally prime the pump on that patience. And you're protected from another team moving into your territory looking to steal those fans away.



The problem isn't that it was smart to not sign Albert Pujols, it's that the system made it smart, by artificially making Allen Craig a bargain.



Anti-market economics, in an industry whose very product is competition, just screws everybody.

[Frayed Knot]

I've been hearing about the predicted disappearance of baseball's middle class for multiple decades now but have yet to see evidence of it.



The Braves & Freddie can reach an agreement or they choose to part ways. I see neither outcome as the forced outcome of a broken system.

[Edgy MD]

I'm not sure how you can miss the evidence. https://apnews.com/article/mlb-new-york-baseball-new-york-yankees-los-angeles-dodgers-97ef96fe2070b4d98a60b847eba6a4beIt's certainly there.



If you don't see artificial market restraints influencing a team's decision-making, then I don't know what to write, but I'm certainly surprised.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not arguing FOR market constraints and never have. But MLB salaries are down in recent years because teams are giving large and longterm contracts to 30+ y/o players less often these days

and in many cases NOT paying players in their 30s for the production they gave in their 20s turns out to be a good decision by the club. Those players instead get lesser contracts which are likely

to drop them more into the 'middle class' by MLB standards while some previously middle class guy moves into his old penthouse.



But none of that has anything to do with F.F. He's a FA with an idea of his own worth and apparently that differs from Atlanta's idea. Maybe one is wrong, maybe the other is, or maybe it's both

or even neither; those things will pay out over time and once (if?) this shit ends he'll be able to get an idea about what other teams think of his worth. But this system puts Atlanta under no

constraints as to size or length of contracts other than their own self-imposed ones, and if he winds up some place else I don't find that any more of a 'shame' than his re-upping where he is now.

The Braves opted not to re-sign Raffy Furcal or Andruw Jones (and others) for instance -- dropping both before each hit 30 -- and I'm sure were happy with both decisions.



Going forward, MLB can change their future rules of engagement in any number of ways, but there are still going to be future 32 y/o top level free agents who are going to get contract offers

and/or kiss-offs from their current team. Some will be pissed, others will find greener pastures.

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: I'm not arguing FOR market constraints and never have.

I didn't write that you were. I wrote that artificial market constraints were influencing decision making.

Frayed Knot wrote: But MLB salaries are down in recent years because teams are giving large and longterm contracts to 30+ y/o players less often these days and in many cases NOT paying players in their 30s for the production they gave in their 20s turns out to be a good decision by the club.

While this is true, it too doesn't dispute anything I've written. What I've written is that this is true to a great extent due to artificial market constraints.

Frayed Knot wrote: But none of that has anything to do with F.F.

Of course it does. The MLB salary rules affect every player and his market value. This shouldn't be controversial in the least, and I can't imagine why it suddenly is.

[Frayed Knot]

Atlanta can pay Freeman any salary they choose to and are also free to reject any salary request.

[Edgy MD]

You're just talking past me. Please forget it.

[Frayed Knot]

Whatever you say