There Might Be Some Free Agent Bargains This Year

It may soon come to the point where players' salary demands will not be met by any team. We may have already hit that point with Manny Ramirez where there are now rumors of him accepting arbitration from the Dodgers. Many Major League teams have put a freeze on spending and are looking for ways to cut cost leaving only a handful of teams competing for some big names. The Red Sox and Yankees only have a few players on their wish list as do the Dodgers and Angels. So who is going to pay the big money if those teams leave the auction? In recent years we have seen teams like the White Sox and Tigers go down the big money route and their teams have not met their expectations. This along with the successes of Moneyball has led teams to take a new approach to signing high priced free agents making for a fairly week market for second tier free agents. This could allow for some late bargains for teams willing to wait longer into the off-season to make some deals. The winter meetings will have some big signings but look for a few big name free agents to be without a team as we turn the calendar to '09.

UPDATE: It seems I am not the only person noticing this, a similar view has just been posted in the Baltimore Sun columnist Peter Schmuck's blog.