America’s favorite pastime has experienced a wild winter so far on the free agency front. Numerous big-name players cashed in on rich contracts with new teams, while other fan favorites received their asking price and stayed put in the same city.
What better place to start our recap of the free agent season so far than in the city that never sleeps — New York City. To little surprise, the pennant-winning Mets continued their active offseason ways by re-signing slugger Yoenis Cespedes to a whopping three-year, $75 million deal.
On the other hand, to the dismay of many fans, the Amazin’s were unable to keep postseason hero Daniel Murphy in New York as he inked a three-year, $37.5 million contract with the division rival Washington Nationals.
Moving to the Bronx, free agency has been quite uneventful for the Yankees to this point. As of now, they are the only team in the MLB to not have signed a free agent since the season’s end. They have acquired star players through trades, but nothing in the free agent market has piqued their interest as of yet. We’ll keep tabs on the Yankees though, as they always have money to spend and love to sneak up on us with last-minute deals.
Throughout the rest of the league, several other teams have lavishly delved into their pockets to sign star free agents. Ben Zobrist of the World Champion Kansas City Royals inked a four-year, $56 million deal with the upstart Chicago Cubs. Justin Upton, formerly of the San Diego Padres, recently formalized his fresh six-year, $132.75 million contract with the Detroit Tigers to ring in the new year.
As I said before, some teams were able to keep their stars at home, but only after offering an extensive amount of money to persuade them to stay. Thankfully for the Orioles, management was able to keep homerun-basher Chris Davis in Baltimore to the tune of a seven-year, $161 million contract. And as for the aforementioned reigning champion Royals, the team received a four-year, $72 million commitment from the supremely talented Alex Gordon.
To say the least, the past couple months have been defined by opulent purchases. And in the most exorbitant deal of this free agency season, none other than the Boston Red Sox signed over ace David Price from their division rival, the Toronto Blue Jays, for seven years and $217 million.
But this is not to say the fun is over, as there are still major free agents on the market for teams to capitalize on. Mat Latos, Dexter Fowler and Howie Kendrick are three stud players any team willing to pay a costly price would love to have. I cannot wait to see what crazy expensive signings will take place before opening day on April 1, as teams certainly have money to spend.
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