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Why are baseball's free agent hitters still not signed?
Sluggers like Yoenis Cespedes haven't garnered as much attention in MLB free agency as pitchers. Alex Trautwig/Getty Images

Why are baseball's free agent hitters still not signed?

With the football season winding down, more sports fans are revving up the countdown until baseball gets underway. (There are approximately 44 days until pitchers and catchers report, for those keeping track.)

But with the start of spring training getting closer, it's hard to ignore the number of MLB players on the free agent market who are still without work.

It seems curious, given all the madness surrounding some of the top pitchers in the game inking new contracts that make most bank accounts squeal for mercy. In fact, while starting pitching has been the big draw, there are defenders with big-bat power — with plenty of teams looking to add a slugger to their lineups — who still haven't inked new deals.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe discussed this very topic, asking if MLB has simply become more pitching-focused:

Has it become that much of a pitching-oriented game that setting aside dollars for an impact hitter is no longer important? After all, it is about runs — both preventing them and scoring them — isn’t it? So the league is paying top pitchers who work every five days north of $30 million per season while hitters who take only five games off a season are still looking for work?

Good point. How is that David Price, Zack Greinke and Johnny Cueto garnered so much attention from suitors, but hitters Alex Gordon and Yoenis Cespedes — who are asking for similar deals to play every day — haven't found new homes yet?

It could be the track record of big deals for big bats going bust. Cafardo brings this up in relation of the drama surrounding big bat Chris Davis, who turned down the Baltimore Orioles' six-year deal:

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette has stayed quiet on the ongoing Davis saga, feeling his organization has made a solid offer. When asked what’s behind the slow market for hitters, he said, “Not sure, other than the prices of these hitters and that clubs are looking at the history of recent mega-deals.” 
He’s probably referring to Joey Votto, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, Troy Tulowitzki, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Carl Crawford, Ryan Braun, Ryan Howard, and pitchers CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander. Teixeira, A-Rod, Votto, and Tulowitzki have been productive within their contracts but they’ve been a ball and chain for their teams in terms of limiting what else they’re able to do.

A recent article on FanGraphs lends itself to this philosophy. The piece talks about the Chicago White Sox pursuing both Gordon and Cespedes but only for three-year deals:

Traditionally, baseball teams spend most of their money before Christmas and then, after the New Year, they start bargain hunting. Historically, free agents who are still on the market six weeks before Spring Training begins start getting lowballed, as teams begin to exert some leverage knowing that players want to have a job lined up before the calendar starts pushing too far towards Opening Day. There are still big contracts signed in January and February — after all, Max Scherzer got $210 million on January 19th last year — but, for the most part, January and February deals come a bit cheaper than deals signed in November and December. 

It makes a lot of sense. With big contracts for big bats in recent years hindering rosters, teams might be waiting until after the new year to get out of coughing up too much dough. Then again, the same could be said for clubs with a history of paying too much for pitching. The San Francisco Giants had to come a long way from being beat up by the Barry Zito deal to spend big this offseason for Cueto and Jeff Samardzija.

Sure, the Gordons and the Cespedeses out there will surely have jobs before the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues open up for business, but it's still a wonder why they've been out on the market for so long.

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