Transparent

Poor Kris Bryant.  He wants to say “collusion,” but can’t.  Bryant was quoted in Friday’s Tribune on the continued availability of free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.  “Two of the best players in the game, and [teams] have very little interest in them, from what I hear,” Bryant commented during this weekend’s Cubs Convention.  “It’s not good.  It’s something that’s going to have to change.  I know a lot of the other players are upset about it.”

 

Yo, Kris, “little” is in the eyes of the beholder.  Last time I checked, Harper walked away from a ten-year $300 million offer (and that’s at minimum) from the Nationals while Machado isn’t exactly chomping at the bit to sign a seven- or eight-year deal with the White Sox in the neighborhood of $175 million.  When players say “No” to $25 million to $30 million a year, that will give an owner to pause, I bet.

 

Here’s a suggestion to any player upset over the paucity and size of offers—demand transparency.  It’s all the rage in business and government.  Applied to baseball, it would require owners to open their books, the real ones, not the ones purporting to show how teams are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.  Make this a key demand, no, the key demand, for the next labor agreement starting in the 2022 season.  No open books, no play.  It’s that simple.

 

The Ricketts family, Bryant’s current employer, may be rolling in the dough, or they could be leveraged to the hilt; there’s only one way to find out.  Like they say, knowledge is power.  Maybe if the Yankees’ finances, along every other team’s, goes public, we can all get a better handle on things.

It sure beats almost saying “collusion.”