© Geoff Burke | 2018 Sep 26
It appears as if baseball’s hot stove is broken. Just weeks before pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report, many of the game’s best players remained unsigned, including both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. The lack of movement from the game’s big names, has also put a freeze on free agency across the board, with teams waiting to acquire players until the market is set.
Former Marlins president David Samson joined the Dan LeBatard Show earlier this week and threw out an interesting explanation as to what’s going on. While some have accused the league of collusion, Samson doesn’t believe that’s the case.
“It’s not collusion, it’s actually two player agents named Dan Lozano and Scott Boras, and they promised that they would get the most money for their player so they cannot sign first. So it’s just a game of chicken and we all lose.
“I know that’s what’s in play. They promised their player they’d get more and if you sign first then how do you guarantee that you get more. If Machado goes first then Harper knows what he has to beat.”
Apparently that’s not the only promise that is holding things up.
“The players were also promised more than Stanton’s $325 million and that is very unlikely to happen. So there’s a lot of problems right now with players and their expectations not being met.”
Click here to listen to the full interview.