Market Dynamics Week spawned out of the Diamondbacks‘ decision to trade Paul Goldschmidt at the outset of the offseason – which in retrospect was a more complicated decision than it even seemed at the time. Since the trade, frigidity in baseball’s free agent market has brought certain trends in player contract to the forefront of the baseball conversation – and they’re worth exploring.
Frontloaded contracts are en vogue, and they’ve become popular fast, but other contracting trends catch on more slowly. Today’s topic is opt-out clauses. It was genuinely shocking that Bryce Harper‘s new contract with the Phillies didn’t include an opt-out clause, which goes to show just how boiler plate they’ve become.