But for 109 players time is standing still. Among them are former All-Stars, Cy Young Award winners and MVP's. They remain without teams, in free agent limbo as it were. If one were to put together a team from this long list, you could field a squad that might be very competitive.
Here's an interesting line-up for you.
What makes this whole exercise very intriguing is that for the first time in recent memory teams are not tripping over one another to overpay for aging former stars. This makes good financial sense, especially with the economy still staggering out of the recession. Low-base, high-incentive contracts seem to be the order of the day, after the top-level free agents found new teams. For teams trying to keep their financial houses in order, this seems to be the best way of going about their business.
Hard to believe that it's less than a week until pitchers and catchers start arriving at spring training sites in Arizona and Florida to begin ramping up for the 2010 season. Has it really been 100 days since the New York Yankees claimed their 27th World Series championship? Time truly does fly the older one gets.
It's not like players aren't still pulling in big contracts. Recently traded Roy Halladay will be making $20 million a season from 2011-13 from the Phillies after his old deal with the Blue Jays expires after this season. It's just that the era of players past their prime still making top dollar may have finally be behind us.
For rebuilding teams like the Blue Jays, excluding the for Vernon Wells' bloated deal, the change in the free agent landscape may work to their advantage. Although they are still on the hook for roughly $116.7 million over the next five seasons on the Wells deal, rebuilding the team from within while trading for prospects is the shrewdest and most fiscally responsible course of action. And if they can add the odd undervalued, (and desperate), free agent that may speed up the rebuild.
Carlos Delgado is also among that list of free agents getting little or no interest. Injuries held the former Blue Jays slugger to just 26 games with the Mets last season. There was a laughable rumour earlier this off-season that the Blue Jays were going to bring back the 37-year-old first baseman but that went against what rookie general manager Alex Anthopoulos is trying to accomplish. It sure feels like the next time we see Delgado at the Rogers Centre will be when they add his name to the Level of Excellence.
The one player who remains in the headlines despite not having found a new team is Johnny Damon. After earning $13 million last year helping the Yankees to their title, the 36-year-old outfielder hasn't exactly been overwhelmed with offers. He will not receive a deal anything close to the $52-million, four-year deal that he signed prior to the 2006 season. There's no denying that Damon still possesses vast skills, just not eight-figures worth. To date, no team has offered him a multi-year deal and it is rumoured that the Braves, Tigers and the White Sox are offering one-year deals in the $6-7 million range. Represented by super agent Scott Boras, the poster boy for getting his clients overvalued contracts, Damon is going to have to swallow hard and play for money in the range that he was receiving from the small-market Royals and Athletics back at the turn of the millennium. That might seem insulting to a 15-year veteran, but what he shouldn't forget is that NHL jerseys he's already banked over $97 million during his career.
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