I wanted to do something more interesting today, but it’ll have to wait for later in the week. In the interim, how much free agent activity do you think we’ll see in November?
The balance of arguments probably suggests “not much,” as teams may want to see what the new economic circumstances are before they start making financial commitments. There are also likely to be questions about grandfathering or a phase-in of new systems, all of which carry a lot of uncertainty that is easier to manage if you
have fewer pre-new-Collective Bargaining Agreement commitments (though of course the CBA could offer special status to anything signed after the 2026 ended and before the new CBA was negotiated).
On the flip side, I’ve seen some stuff suggesting that to the extent they have any leverage over their teams, the best free agents of this class (namely, Tarik Skubal) will be able to secure massive commitments pre-lockout as basically a condition of being wooed. Will that end up true? It seems easily falsifiable; we just have to wait a few weeks to see if that comes to pass.
Anyway, what do you think will happen in this regard? Lots of signings? Only a handful? Just Skubal?
