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PHOENIX – New Los Angeles Dodgers utility man Kiké Hernández voiced his displeasure on the state of the free-agent market, twice ripping the method publicly Thursday, together with on the YouTube show, “Foul Territory.”
Hernández, who re-signed with Los Angeles on a one-year, $4 million deal Monday, informed this system “I’m not going to say the C-word, however I believe the C-word wants a capital C,” a not-so-veiled allegation that major-league house owners are colluding to suppress participant markets.
“The timing of the calls (with groups) have been very comparable,” Hernández mentioned on the present. “The numbers have been just about the identical all through.
“I believe the groups which can be utilizing these laptop programs to challenge numbers, challenge salaries, they’re all utilizing the identical one and I believe all of them have the identical password. In order that’s how free company goes, and it’s not simply me.”
Collusion amongst house owners is forbidden, and likewise tough to show. A Major League Baseball spokesperson declined to remark.
Hernández continued to specific his frustration Thursday afternoon when talking with reporters on-site at spring coaching, saying the drawn-out course of that led him to signal three weeks into camp was just like the expertise of a number of different established free brokers.
“I imply, it’s been horrible,” Hernández mentioned. “There’s nonetheless a number of actually good high quality baseball gamers, large leaguers which can be greater than able to being on a regular basis guys on a number of groups, and the truth that they’re nonetheless on the market, it’s a disgrace. It looks as if a number of the house owners had an excuse by way of the TV deal and issues like that. It was a really bizarre offseason and it nonetheless is for some guys. It doesn’t look like issues are choosing up both for a few of these guys, which is shameful.”
The Dodgers, whose collective spending this winter has topped $1.2 billion, have pounced on a sluggish market. Not less than one different free agent addition, Teoscar Hernández, pointed to the slow market as motivation to take a one-year take care of Los Angeles, regardless of his hopes of touchdown a multi-year pact.
MLB Gamers Affiliation govt director Tony Clark echoed comparable considerations to The Athletic this week, calling the state of the free-agent market — which nonetheless has notable unsigned gamers akin to two-time Cy Younger winner Blake Snell, left-hander Jordan Montgomery, third baseman Matt Chapman and former Dodger J.D. Martinez — “attention-grabbing.”
“I discover it laborious to imagine any time major-league gamers, that may assist groups win ballgames, are unsigned,” Clark mentioned.
How a lot some groups will make from their tv and media rights in coming years is unsure in some markets, however Hernández and Clark each appeared to imagine that groups are leveraging that concern too far to keep away from participant spending.
Hernández, a 10-year veteran, had a extra fruitful free company after the 2020 season, inking a two-year, $14 million take care of the Boston Red Sox and rising as a productive contributor to their American League Championship Sequence run that October earlier than inking a one-year extension the next fall. His 2022 season was his worst full 12 months as a giant leaguer (.629 OPS), and he adopted it with a .646 OPS between Boston and Los Angeles in 2023, a reunion met with rave critiques by Dodgers officers.
Hernández and the Dodgers expressed mutual curiosity all through the winter, however it took so lengthy partly on account of a clog on the roster opened up by Monday’s commerce of Manuel Margot. Hernández, who informed “Foul Territory” his choice got here all the way down to the Dodgers (who had a better provide, he mentioned) and the New York Yankees, circled again with Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. He had only one provide as of some weeks in the past, permitting the Dodgers the prospect to slip in.
“I used to be ready on the Dodgers however I used to be additionally ready on different groups to make a proposal and get critical and the timing of groups acquired critical as on the identical time that the Dodgers made a transfer,” Hernández mentioned.
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(Photograph: Chris Coduto / Getty Photos)
