What Goes Unsaid

Ballplayers this spring spent a whole lot of time complaining about the slow free-agent market; the Cubs’ Kris Bryant and a host of others apparently think owners should jump at the chance to sign just about anyone, say, like the Orioles’ Chris Davis.  Funny how players don’t talk about the seven-year, $161-million deal Davis signed back in 2016.  Here’s why.

 

In his walk year, Davis hit 47 homeruns with 117 RBIs and a .262 BA.  In the first year of his new contract, Davis went 38/84/.221.  In 2017 those numbers shrank to 26/61/.215 and last year to 16/49/.168.  This season, you could say the O’s first baseman has picked up where he left off, going a combined 0 for 54 since his last hit in 2018.

A stupid deal like this—nobody really wanted to sign Davis for big bucks, which means Baltimore could’ve gotten him for considerably less or, better yet, seen what everybody else did and taken a pass—does have repercussions that discourage repeats, such as plummeting attendance along with purges in the front office.  But it also sends panic through the ranks of ownership.  Even if it was only an indirect one, Davis’s contract has affected salary arbitration.

Well if a guy like Chris Davis can have such a big contract, an arbitrator will reason, then this first baseman who can actually hit should be paid something, too.  Hint to players—this is part of the motivation for owners to play hardball with them and to act like children passing around a plastic victory belt when they win.

 

I don’t have a dog in this fight—players and owners are the combatant elephants, we’re all the grass that gets trampled on.  But I hate seeing players pretend not to know why the other side is behaving the way it does.