It started on Sunday with the news trickling out that Jonathan Papelbon had filed a grievance against the Nationals for his suspension following the September dugout fight with Bryce Harper. It continued on Monday when it was reported that Kris Bryant of the Cubs and Maikel Franco of the Phillies filed grievances against their respective teams due to their teams keeping them in the minor leagues to delay future free agency. The type of grievances could not be more different, but are both meaningful in their own ways.
Let’s be clear: there is nothing mysterious about this scenario. It’s not a case where the teams are being investigated about whether they attempted to control each player’s service time. The Cubs and Phillies, without a doubt, kept the two young stars in the minors at the beginning of this season for the sole purpose of shortening their service time this season. The CBA stipulates that a full year of service time is 172 days. Upon six years of service, the player becomes a free agent and can play for whomever they want and assuredly for a lot more money than before. The service time rule doesn’t include any “rounding” so if a player has five years and 171 days of service heading into a season, they are still under control of their team.
In Bryant’s scenario, it was no secret the Cubs were going to handle his playing time in this manner. Even after having a monstrous Spring Training, the eventual Rookie of the Year started the season in the minors. He made his major league debut on April 17 and finished the year with 171 days of service. Therefore, he will not be eligible to be a free agent until after the 2021, rather than 2020 which would have been the case had Bryant played with the Cubs from the start of the season. The Cubs will not only save money by limiting Bryant’s service time, but will also keep him in the fold for another year. From a business perspective, it’s a no brainer.
Franco is a similar story. Due to playing 16 games in September of 2014, the Phillies waited until May 15th until bringing him up to the big league club. He finished the season with 170 games of service. Franco, likewise won’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2021 season.
According to a piece by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, both grievances were officially filed in the early part of the season and it’s unknown whether they have reached an arbitrator. Passan quotes Franco’s agent, Ryan Royster, regarding their reason for this grievance:
“We want to see things geared toward winning, and this isn’t just the Phillies. It’s all teams. The fans deserve to see the best product on the field, and the players deserve the best team surrounding them so they can win.”
Historically speaking, this entire story is quite remarkable but not unprecedented. It wasn’t until 1975 that the reserve clause was abolished by Major League Baseball. The reserve clause essentially kept the player the property of the team until the team didn’t want him anymore. The ramifications were that players had to work very hard to negotiate for more money once their contracts were up and they were at the mercy of the ownership. It didn’t matter if your name was Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, or Ted Williams, you could not make your bosses dance to your beat. You couldn’t change teams on a whim. You were the “property” of the team until you retired or were traded. Curt Flood of the Cardinals was traded to the Phillies in 1969 and Flood did not want to play for that terrible franchise and he sued baseball. He lost his case, but the table was set for the abolition of the reserve clause and the emergence of free agency.
Presently, the winter months are filled with monster free agent signings and star-studded trades. Players move about (after six years of service, of course) like food trucks move around great urban centers. The money is flowing like milk and honey and everyone is getting a piece of the pie. However, for the young players in the league (especially minor leaguers, who aren’t in the union) like Franco and Bryant, their piece of the pie is limited. They aren’t eligible for arbitration until after three seasons and therefore, they don’t need to get pay increases. Most teams will at least slightly bump their pay before arbitration eligibility because they aren’t total monsters, but the money is still minuscule compared to free agency money. For players with less than three years of service, they live essentially in a pre-1975 baseball world.
Bryant and Franco don’t like the fact that their respective teams took advantage of the rules to help the team’s future financial situation. They certainly have a case and a reason to be upset. While the moves saved the teams money, it will cost the players money. At what point do teams let go of the business aspect of the job and just do something because it’s the right thing to do? The answer is never, and that’s perfectly fine. While it may be unfair, those are the rules and furthermore, they’re the rules delineated in the CBA which is obviously agreed upon by the union. The current CBA is valid through the end of November 2016. Following the news of the Cubs sending Bryant down to the minors for the start of the 2015 season the MLBPA released a statement: “Today is a bad day for baseball.” Well if you don’t like it, you should not have agreed to that in the CBA.
Sure it sucks. More Kris Bryant is better than less Kris Bryant and the less playing time he gets, the worse for the fans. Fans are not concerned about the year 2022, they want to see the stars play now and rightfully so. But front offices can’t follow the whims and wishes of the fans because then Tim Tebow would be playing as a QB for a NFL team. Whether fans like it not, sports is a business more than it’s anything else. Sure it has entertainment value, but it all comes down to money. If the Cubs had missed the playoffs this year because Bryant missed the first week of games in April, then so be it. It’s about the future. The only danger is that teams are always working toward the future and it never gets here.
These types of situations aren’t going anywhere. There will be more examples of it and will continue to be until the rules change. One thing is for sure, this probably isn’t exactly what Curt Flood has in mind.
Further Reading
