Baltimore Orioles: Affects on free agency

Could the Baltimore Orioles and other teams holding onto their free agents affect baseball?

The Baltimore Orioles are one of many teams who have kept most of their free agents this winter. Keep in mind that if recent history is any indication, this year is the exception to the rule. Or is it the start of something new (or maybe something old) in baseball, perhaps?

In the recent past we’ve seen free agents going to high bidders, thus resulting in certain teams being stacked. Smaller market clubs like the Orioles and the Kansas City Royals would often come out on the losing end of this. Heck, teams would often have to turn around and play against what used to be their own player in the sae division.

But let’s say that we are starting to see players opting to stay put with their old teams. What does that mean for the game, and how would it change things? Well first off it marginalizes the affect of the big dollar teams such as New York, Boston, Washington, and Los Angeles. But there might be another result, which would effectively bring baseball back to it’s roots.

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Trades are still more predominant in baseball than in any other sport. Heck, the announcement last week of the fact that this year’s trade deadine is going to be August 1st (instead of July 31st – which falls on a Sunday this year) was a big deal. But trades used to be even bigger – that is until free agency began.

Trades used to be the only way that players would switch teams. Granted the advent of free agency has brought about bigger trades, but the true blockbusters are fewer and further between. However if free agency itself ends up getting marginalized a bit with guys sticking to their old teams, could trades become bigger than they are now and similar to how they were years ago?