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Monday, June 02, 2014

Stephen Drew Signs; Draft Pick Penalty is Terrible, Should Go

Stephen Drew finally found a home, right back
where he started.  Photo credit: Keith Allison
I'd missed the initial news, but Stephen Drew apparently has finally found a job.  After the draft pick penalty prevented him from finding gainful employment with a number of teams who otherwise could have used his services, he ended up signing again with the Boston Red Sox.  Because they are re-signing their player, the Red Sox do not give up a compensation pick to sign Drew, but they also don't get a pick that would have otherwise come to them from Drew's signing team (although the chances of that were almost zilch at this point).

As I wrote in March, this system is terrible.  I like the idea of giving an extra draft pick to the team who loses a quality player via free agency.  Furthermore, I *really* like the qualifying offer system as a way to let the market dictate the value of a player, as opposed to using Elias's horrific player rating system.  But I see no reason why the team that signs a player should be penalized, as this ultimately results in a penalty to the player.  Stephen Drew might not be an elite player, but baseball is better with him in the game.  I'd love to see the lost-pick penalty go immediately.

Everything I've heard about it, however, indicates that nothing will change until the current CBA expires after 2016.  That means that we're in for another two offseasons of this nonsense.  Stephen Drew and the other players in his situation were effectively denied their free agency.  It's not collusion, because teams are acting in their individual best interests.  But the effect seems very much the same.

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