Ryan Malmstrom’s Blog

Buster Olney from ESPN posted a response to an email I had sent him in this mornings blog.  (must be an ESPN Insider to view the full blog post)

Perhaps you can shed some light on this. I’ve read various articles over the last few days that have confused me. An example would be “Mets ‘absolutely in’ on Figgins.” Now, Luis Castillo has the same agent as Chone Figgins, but my understanding is that the Angels are the only team allowed to talk with Figgins at this point. Aren’t other teams prohibited from talking to agents about free agents until November 20th?
– Ryan Malmstrom, Minneapolis

Ryan, agents can talk to all teams before the free-agent signing period begins — this year, that will be at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 20 — but by rule, they are not allowed to talk actual dollars with any team other than the player’s 2009 club. And if you believe the executives and agents all abide by this rule, well, I’ve got some oceanfront land in Vermont to sell you.

I was sure this was the case anyway, but why make the rule if agents and executives are not going to follow it?  This date is put in for a reason:  to allow the teams exclusive negotiating rights with their players that have filed for free agency.   What is to stop Scott Boras from telling Matt Holliday “I know the Mets will offer you more money than the Cardinals, so let’s just wait until after November 20th to sign the deal.”

When it comes to players salaries, no one bats an eye when the advantage falls to the player.  But when a player is not tendered a contract because the team feels the player is not worth what they’ll make in arbitration, the players association is “monitoring comments from team officials that it believes are meant to put a crimp in the money spent on talent this offseason.”

Garrett Atkins is certainly not worth $10 million a year to the Rockies.  Teams are not attempting to keep players salaries down.  They just cannot afford to pay them, knowing what they’ll get in arbitration.  The Yankees can buy a World Series, yet any advantage to the small market teams are either taken away or being questioned.