As for the other nonsense about they don't want to come here because we suck. So how exactly do you explain Bryant to the Rockies, Correa to the Twins and Seager and Semien to the Rangers???? Last season we won 16 games more than the Rockies, 17 more than the Twins and 30 more than the Rangers. Explain that.
Well, there may be lots of ways of skinning that cat. For starters, who knows what goes on the brains of talented free agents plumbing the depths of free agency. We may never know since (a) there's lots of them and they are likely all thinking different things, (b) they are being influenced by their agents who have their own agendas, and (c) so far as I know no one on this board is a former MLB player, so we're all just spitballing.
But my dad always says that opinions are like assholes - everyone has one. She here's mine (opinion...not asshole):
Free agents want to make a ton of money. Who doesn't? Their agents get a cut of whatever they make, so they want to make a ton of money as well. Baseball players have a shelf life measured in years, not decades, so they want to make bank as soon as they can for as long as they can. They are always betting against declines due to age and injury, so long term contracts like Cano's are better than short term contracts (unless you're in your late-30's and you sort of take what you can get and prove yourself for the next short contract like Nelson Cruz). What does all of this mean vis-a-vis the M's recent offseason? Likely it means that the top FAs want top dollar, and the M's weren't willing to pay big bucks for long contracts (once bitten twice shy...Robbie Cano). We just didn't open our wallets. The Rangers paid stupid money for 2 of the biggest FA names. Why? Dunno. They aren't a contending team yet. But maybe they just want to please their fanbase and get asses in seats while the M's have different priorities.
Look, we could have landed any of the big names in FA this year. We could easily have landed Correa or Semien or Suzuki or Bryant or any of the other wet dream, big names being bandied about here. Hell, we could have landed 2 or 3 of them (like the Rangers did) if money was no object. So either the M's didn't want to spend big, or they made offers that were rejected because the FA had other priorities besides money.
What other priorities might they have? I don't know. I am not a metrics guy like most of you all are, so I don't know if a drop in batting average due to the barometric pressure at sea level, or the position of the walls in the outfield, or the flavor of the urinal cakes in the locker room are relevant factors. As D-Train points out, even if your metrics do take a hit because the M's have a pitcher's ballpark and the toughest, most tiring schedule in baseball, that future ball clubs will look at these numbers and add a fudge factor (much like colleges do in assessing students and making GPA adjustments if they taker honors or AP classes).
Maybe there's a personal element to the decision making. Hell, I bet that most of us have interviewed places and got a bad vibe or a looming sense that we wouldn't fit into the culture there. Maybe it's not that we suck, but it's because we have a
culture of sucking. There's a difference. Who knows what players say about the M's management. The fanbase wants to win, but without the support of management, you're going to join a club and get cheered by the fans but not so much as a reach around by the GM and owner. Maybe they want to join a club where they see potential - where they can make a difference in winning a pennant, or where they can be a big fish in a small pond. Maybe they want to join a team with teammates they have played with before.
In short, there's a ton of factors that go into decisions that FAs make, and I don't think we can distill it down to a single factor and call it a day. But I do believe that the M's had the budget to make serious offers to any of the big names this offseason. So either they didn't (and that's my guess), or they did and they were rejected for a host of other factors. As I have said previously, I think JD and management are waiting for JRod and his legion of pitching prospects to get a year of MLB experience, and then he will splurge next offseason. Then again, maybe he won't...Jerry seems to like swap meets more than retail. He'd rather trade for a Pinto hoping it's got a few good years in it than open his wallet and buy a new Ford F350.
