Yankees Circumvent Spirit of Free Agency Guidelines | DugoutCentral.com's Blog

By Rick Swanson Did you know teams are limited in how many Type A and Type B free agents they can sign in a year? Article XX, paragraph B (5)(a) of the basic agreement states. Clubs shall be limited in the number of Type A and B Players, as defined below, they may subsequently sign to contracts. The number of signings permitted shall be related to the number of Players electing free agency under this Section B. If there are 14 or less such Players, no Club may sign more than one Type A or B Player. If there are from 15 to 38 such Players, no Club may sign more than two Type A or B Players. If there are from 39 to 62 such Players, no Club may sign more than three Type A or B Players. If there are more than 62 such Players, the Club quotas shall be increased accordingly. There shall be no restrictions on the number of unranked Players that a Club may sign to contracts. Unfortunately these guidelines are applicable to the total number of free agents, which for 2009 were 171. In practice, they should apply to free agents that are deemed desirable by their teams ??? not every free agent. This should mean that ???players electing free agency??? should be changed to ???Type A and Type B??? players being offered arbitration. Using the current guidelines, the Yankees are able to sign up to nine Type A or B free agents, as Pat Courtney stated in the Boston Globe. But in my proposed change, with only 13 Type A and 11 Type B free agents offered arbitration this year, the Yankees would only be able to sign two Type A or Type B players. In the spirit of fairness, this is what should happen. This is where the commissioner should step in and use his ???in the best interest of baseball??? power.

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January 11, 2009 10:20 PM ET

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"But in my proposed change, with only 13 Type A and 11 Type B free agents offered arbitration this year," XXX XXXXXXX any team "would only be able to sign two Type A or Type B players."
That is what you mean, isn't it?

Fansince48

Boca Raton , FL

Total Comments (3)

January 13, 2009 07:48 AM ET

I'm getting sick and tired of everyone bashing the Yankees for signing who they've signed this off-season, and every other off-season for that matter. Maybe the rules should be changed, but for now the rules are what they are and the Yankees are playing by them. And let's not forget that no one held a gun to any player's head and made him sign a contract. Some folks will say "All the players care about is the money". I challenge anyone to give me one good reason why a player shouldn't care about the money. Look at it this way: Lets say you just got your masters degree (doesn't matter what field) and now you're looking for a job. You've got 2 offers: one from some big corporation as an executive making more money then you ever dreamed possible, and another offer from the 7-11 down the street from where you grew up making minimum wage and the only potential growth in your job is maybe someday you'll become the night manager where your only real responsibility is making sure there are enough hotdogs on the rollers for the overnight security guard that comes by every night at 2 in the morning. Which one would you accept?

Also, exactly what are the Yankees circumventing anyway? According to the rules you've posted, and by my estimation, the Yankees are allowed to sign (+/-) 14 type A or B free agents this off-season. So I say they should go out and sign 11 more!

Finally, I urge all Yankee haters to continue calling the Yankees and us fans "The Evil Empire". Throughout history (in fact and in fiction) everyone who was called evil or a villian by one man, was also called a hero by another. So go ahead and keep making comparisons between George, Hal, and Hank Steinbrenner and The Emperor, Darth Vader, and Darth Maul. I say (and millions agree with me) they are the greatest owners in sports history.