Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper believes that Major League Baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement is to blame for the unseasonably slow start to the hot-stove league. The new competitive balance tax now financially penalizes teams whose payrolls exceed $197 million, and can also lead to teams having to forfeit draft picks and lose international spending money. What’s more, for teams like the Giants who are repeat offenders, a 50 percent tax is placed on every dollar spent over the $197 million threshold.
All this means that teams are sitting back and waiting until we get closer to Spring Training to make moves, in the hopes that they will be able to sign big-name free agents at a reduced price. According to Kuiper, this means it could be months until high payroll teams like the Giants fill their rosters.
I think now a lot of teams are just going to sit back and say well, ‘we’ll wait. Now maybe we can get some guy on a one-year deal,’” Kuiper told Murph & Mac. “If this particular free agent feels like he would rather play one year and go back into the hopper next year, that’s what they might do and teams are going to wait. Who knows, we may be talking on March 1 that the Giants still don’t have a centerfielder or right fielder, it’s very well possible. That’s the way it’s going right now.
“Organizations are going to wait…I’ll bet Eric Hosmer thought he was going to get some offers from teams that were in contention. As it turns out, the teams that are in contention are usually the ones that are close to being at that salary cap, at that luxury tax level, and they’re not going to go over it. So that eliminates the Hosmers from going to a quality, quality team that’s got their hearts set on the postseason. So that hurts these free agents as well.”
Listen to the full interview below.