The slowest winter for free agency in modern baseball history is almost over and the results for players are grim.
Although free-agent rankings can differ, the consensus is this: More than a dozen of the top 20 or so free agents are still unsigned; about half of the top 50 are still available; about 100 free agents remain unsigned in all, a good chunk of whom probably have no shot at a Major League contract and will have to settle for a minor-league deal.
This is a big deal because, as players’ union chief Tony Clark put it, free agency has been “the cornerstone of baseball’s economic system for decades.