I grew up watching many sports. I always thought it would be incredible to play for a team, preferably a Toronto team. When I remember what I used to dream of, I wonder now whether the players have forgotten those dreams.
Many rookies in baseball hold out for money. They want lots of money now. That is all fine and dandy for them, and I applaud the agents for trying to get the best deal available, but hasn’t it gone a little too far?
Granted, in the NFL, rookies get a lot more money, but notice the trend in the MLB. First-round picks don’t sign and end up being a lesser pick who gets a fraction of what their original team offered. Why is the agent not being blamed here?
Let’s be up front about this, it’s the agent that holds all the strings. They decide how much to accept. There are players who are amazed they can play for the team they grew up cheering for and then the agent says, “Sorry, they didn’t offer enough money.”
This is absurd.
First, there is no guarantee that any player will be good. We cannot even say Bryce Harper will be the best player in this year’s draft (Albert Pujols was drafted in the 13th round), and yet he will be paid a lot more than most other draftees.
They need to stop giving the agents this kind of power and let the kid say that he wants to play so he will take the money. And another thing, why not make the slottings compulsory instead of optional? This way, the teams have to pay the slot amount so the rookies are developed properly and are not stunted because of some agent.
The reality is in this day and age, a young player cannot control his agent. The agent controls him. For this reason and more, the draft needs to have compulsory slotting.
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