“Please sign Gerrit Cole,” the sign read. Neither Cole nor Strasburg should linger on the market into spring training, as Bryce Harper and Manny Machado did last spring. The players that did sign were announced as “avoiding arbitration,” but that language was misleading at best. The arbitration process does not start until January, when teams and players exchange proposed salaries. AdvertisementIf analytics say spending big bucks on older players is inefficient, then the players want the owners to spend big bucks on younger players.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 07, 2019 01:30 UTC