I mean that in a few different ways. First, it’s been an outstanding (read: excellent) hot stove season for the Giants, with everything but a final offensive upgrade in place and no sacrifice of the youth movement.
Second, it’s an outstanding, i.e. remarkable, industry environment, a market correction for player labor that has ties to the general economy. It’s not a perfect parallel: unlike the world’s mightiest falling like fleas, certain baseball teams still have money to spend when deemed necessary. And it’s not just the Yankees, either. Edgar Renteria got more from the Giants than if he had waited ‘til now, no doubt. Derek Lowe just got a fat deal with the Braves.
But Adam Dunn, Mr. 40–Homers-a-Year, is unemployed in late January. There’s Manny Ramirez, of course. Bobby Abreu, Randy Wolf, Andy Pettitte, Jon Garland, Orlando Cabrera, Juan Cruz, and so forth. Don’t cry for them, Argentina. They’re not being foreclosed, shitcanned, or losing medical coverage. But it’s all relative. To have so many useful players’ situations still outstanding — yet another definition, as in remaining or unresolved — this close to spring training is probably unprecedented.
And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. In a recent column Peter Gammons looked ahead to what might happen this summer when teams see how much the economy is crushing their fan bases. If the economy keeps falling and stadiums grow emptier, a chain of events might set into motion in the coming year. First, teams still bogged down with huge contracts will look for fire sales. (One example Gammons gives: The Astros and Roy Oswalt.) If that doesn’t clear enough from the books — and now I’m venturing beyond the scope of the Gammons article — we might see more contracts restructured, a la Andruw Jones. If teams still can’t meet payroll, then what? Cash calls from their investors? The D-Backs did it a few years ago, but this economy is, if you’ll pardon me, a whole new ballgame.
Then what? Bailouts from MLB? Contraction of franchises? I’m no expert in macro-economics, so I’m not sure how likely or unlikely these scenarios are, but I’ll bet the media starts tackling these subjects as we head deeper into the great economic unknown.
