When you read most any prediction or overview of a free-agency period, you'll invariably encounter some line about money being the ultimate deciding factor in where a player will sign. Money, as in how much he and his agent are seeking, and money, as in how much various teams are able and willing to spend.
Sadly -- or not depending your perspective -- this is absolutely true, and Major League Baseball has proved this to be the case every winter since the mid-1970s.
But what if it weren't true?
Imagine a baseball world in which the ruling principle wasn't money, but what was best for the "game" -- that intangible thing beyond fans, media, players, owners, general managers or commissioners.