MLB Wants to Limit the Free Agency Period

If you think the free-agent period in Major League Baseball is dragging on too long, you're going to like what comes next.

On the sidelines of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, Major League Baseball wants to limit the number of days players can sign a contract.

Clubs therefore believe that it's the players' and agents' fault that the free-agent period drags on.

What is MLB proposing?

Before the winter meetings (early December), free agents would not be allowed to sign. They could, however, negotiate with clubs, but not sign a contract.

Normally, the market opens a few days after the World Series—which is a month before the date proposed by Rob Manfred.

Free agents would have until December 21 to sign. If nothing is done, players would have to wait until the first Monday in February to sign.

As for trades, they would be allowed in November, as before, and through December 21. They would not be allowed from December 21 through the first Monday in February.

As you can imagine, the negotiations—which have been very public from the start—aren't going well. After all, the players don't like this offer, and there's still a lot of bickering.

According to the Players Association, this rule (in addition to the proposed salary cap) would prevent players from properly testing the market.

If you ask me, if a rule like that were to pass, a lot of guys would just wait until after the break to sign.

Rules like that are just meant to be circumvented.

And if you want my opinion again, MLB would lose out by having no signings or trades for a month and a half. That wouldn't reflect well on the sport.

I don't think it'll pass the board. And I think MLB proposed it knowing it wouldn't pass, just so they could make gains elsewhere.

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