Spring training camps are opening up all across Arizona and Florida and the two biggest free agents are still unsigned.  Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, both aged 26, were looking to snare 10 year deals worth in excess of $300 million, but are on the outside looking in as their peers get back to work.  With 2 straight winters of a free agent freeze out, many people are questioning what is going on.  Especially when 2 superstars, each about to enter their prime, are unable to find the deals that they are looking for.

There are many reasons for the lack of movement.  First, many of the teams that you would expect to be outbidding each other are treating the luxury tax thresholds as though it were a salary cap.  This has left the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers on the sidelines.  Secondly, the number of teams that aren’t planning on being competitive further limits the list of available suitors.

Of course the remaining reason, depending on your point of view, may be the most troubling.  Either teams are colluding to keep the price of free agents down, as they did in the 80s before to a cost of $280 million in a 1990 settlement, or analytics has gotten to the point where each team values players the same, leaving little variation in offers.  Either way, the last 2 off-seasons are likely to lead to labor unrest, which the sport has largely been able to avoid since the 1994 strike.  And the longer Machado and Harper are out of camp, the worse it will be.