Eric Hosmer, the Royals' No. 1 pick, has been taken off the field, as Major League Baseball and the union prepped for their arbitration hearing about Pedro Alvarez's signing dispute.
Some more thoughts on this matter:
- Major League Baseball has been extending deadlines and bending rules for years, presumably with the complicit knowledge of the union and the players' representatives and presumably without some round of collective bargaining. Heck, it was just a few years ago when the commissioner extended the 72-hour negotiation window in order to give Scott Boras and Alex Rodriguez more time to work out a complicated financial situation with the Red Sox, as the Rangers and Boston discussed the A-Rod/Manny deal that wound up falling apart. Every year at the trade deadline, some deals haven't been completed formally until after 4 p.m. ET. So it will be interesting to see how the arbitrator views Boras' request for selective enforcement.
- Clearly, Major League Baseball needs to tighten its deadline rules. A trade at 4:01 p.m., one minute after deadline? Well, forget it; no deal. A contractual agreement with a draftee after midnight? Sorry, no deal. Whether it's fair or not, or right or wrong, there is a perception among many team executives that certain clubs enjoy favored-nation status when it comes to deadlines, so by enforcing the rules to the letter, MLB would put an end to that. Hey, Boras and the Pirates both knew the deadline could be bent. Just make the deadlines rock-solid, and this will force teams and agents to conclude trade and contract negotiations more quickly, rather than play the game of deadline chicken.
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Buster Olney
