With free agency plodding along, MLB’s hot stove needed an alternative fuel to stay warm this winter. Its replacement? A heated discussion about the game’s labor environment. The kindling should be familiar by now: For a second consecutive year, top free agents remain unsigned in February with under a month before players report to spring training. Among the players who have signed, few have inked multi-year contracts. The median player salary has dropped over the last few seasons despite record league revenue.
There’s been ample debate over whether the system is broken or not, but it’s hard to deny that it is very different.