Multi-Year Deals Have Changed the Free Agent Landscape

Tom Singer of MLB.com discusses the current free agent class and how it has been affected by recent baseball trends.

This year’s crop of free agents is definitely not considered one of the better groups we have seen in a while. Part of the reason for the lack of prime time players may be due to the trend of signing young ballplayers to multi-year contracts.

This trend was started by Cleveland general manager John Hart, who broke the mold by giving multiyear deals to such young players as Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, setting up the Indians for a long run of success.

There is a danger to this practice as the Blue Jays can attest to. The team signed Vernon Wells to a seven-year, $126 million contract in December 2006, one season before he would’ve been a first-time free agent. They also inked Alex Rios to a seven-year, $69.8 million deal in April 2008.

Read more about this trend and what to expect as we move forward here.