Why Zaidi would like MLB to set a free agency deadline

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even though the Giants didn't come up as winners in the free agent sweepstakes for Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they remain in need of an infield upgrade to shore up their defense.

That could take some time while the market plays out. It includes the very real possibility of some players not signing until after spring training begins next month.

But Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is of the mind that the MLB free agency period, which began shortly after the World Series ended, needs to have a deadline of some sort.

"Wouldn't it be better if it was all done before [Jan. 1]?" Zaidi said Thursday at Oracle Park during the press conference to introduce free-agent signee Jordan Hicks. "This is just my personal opinion. I'm not speaking for anybody else. But it's a tough environment to get deals done when you don't have deadlines."

Zaidi's reasoning is that with no deadlines, the market becomes a logjam of players wanting new contracts but with no pressure to have a deal completed. That can produce prolonged talks that ultimately lead nowhere or players accepting a deal that was offered much earlier in the process.

Part of the argument for having a deadline is for the sake of individual players. A prospective free agent playing on the East Coast might be in negotiations with a West Coast team and wants to do a deal quickly in order to adjust their personal lives in terms of moving their families, enrolling children in new schools, etc.

As it stands now, plenty of players have to scramble to make plans for themselves and their families, often at the last moment.

"As a team, you're weighing different options; you're weighing free-agent trade options. As an agent, you get an offer for a player, and the player says, 'Well, what else is out there?' Things could just go on longer than needed," Zaidi said. "A lot of times with a deadline, you wind up in the same place you would have wound up in even if it went on for a month."

With spring training right around the corner, several free agents still without a team. That includes 2023 NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell, who reportedly has been on the Giants' radar.

San Francisco, though, needed to act quicker to upgrade its pitching staff and didn't want to wait around much longer to see what Snell does. That's one of the reasons the Giants traded for Robbie Ray and signed Hicks, the former reliever whom they plan to use as a starter next season.

"We've had some offseasons recently where things seemed to have gone quicker," Zaidi said. "This feels like a little bit of a slow offseason, and that's when this question is going to come up.

"One thing I've heard is having a deadline, whether it's Dec. 31 or the Friday after the winter meetings for multiyear deals, where players could still sign one-year deals after that point."

That idea presents a hurdle in that it creates a scenario in whic MLB teams could wait until the deadline before offering a free-agent contract to anyone, knowing it only would lock them in for a short-term deal. That, in turn, could lead players to accuse owners of collusion.

Zaidi almost chuckled at the thought.

"I understand the pros and cons. I understand the concerns that it might be restrictive of the market to have a cut-off point," Zaidi said. "But I also think it's not ideal for players to be free agents for this long. It creates a lot of anxiety. I don't think it's great for clubs who want to sign players, be able to market those players, get their fans excited."

Zaidi has been criticized over the Giants' lack of splash moves in the past few offseasons. They missed out on Aaron Judge in 2023, and this offseason, they weren't able to land either Ohtani or Yamamoto, two of the biggest available names.

Still, Zaidi likes the idea of teams having a deadline and doing deals sooner rather than later.

"It seems like there's no reason those deals can't be done," Zaidi said. "Frankly, it might create sort of more opportunities for players looking for one-year deals because they're not kind of blocked by that first wave of players.

"Think about some of the guys who are still out there who are almost certain to get multiyear deals. Just ask the hypothetical: Are they going to get more in the next month than they would have gotten if there was a deadline in December? It's not like the bidding just goes up and up as time goes on. People just work backward from the deadline, and a lot of the activity happens right at the end, regardless of when the deadline is."

According to Zaidi, the idea of a free agency deadline surfaced during the last round of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. Nothing materialized from the discussions, although Zaidi believes a deadline might spark the free-agent market more.

"I completely understand that there would be pushback from the [players association] on it because of views that it might restrict the market. I just think it's worth looking at and asking a question," Zaidi said. "I actually think you might have more spending.

"It's a tough dynamic to get deals done without deadlines. Honestly, a lot of the free-agent deals that happen are because agents just say, 'I'm getting a deal done by the end of the week.' They kind of have these self-imposed deadlines, and it happens much more that way."

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