“Enjoy the strike.”
That message came up often this winter whenever the topic of conversation shifted to free agency. The root cause was how many players waited so long — some are still waiting — for teams to sign them. It also applied to how many players accepted minor league contracts, or deals well below what they would have gotten just a few years ago.
Players are no longer looking forward to free agency, but actively fear it. Nothing is more evident than that, especially considering the wave of extensions we’ve seen throughout the league. So many of them are team-friendly.