This is the age-old debate that resurfaces just about every single year, around this time during Major League Baseball’s Spring Training time. Team X has a highly-touted prospect that has some hype behind their potential, and they get a substantial chunk of time with the Major League squad, getting to scrimmage against Major League players, and it turns out that they can not only hold their own, but excel immediately.
But then right about this time every year, citing some sort of bullshit excuse along the lines of “they need more seasoning” or “they need to work on hitting breaking balls on Monday night games with 75%+ humidity,” Team X, Team Y and every other team that has a hotshot prospect, reassigns them to minor league camp, where they will inevitably start out their seasons in either Triple-A or Double-A minor league baseball.
And then right on cue, the internet explodes up in arms about the fallacy of the so-called “abuse” of the “system,” how young prospect players are artificially held back in the minor leagues, regardless of how ready they are, so that the teams can manipulate their service clocks in a manner that would give them the maximum amount of time they are allowed to employ the player at the most minimal financial commitment. How it’s crooked, and abusive to the players, and this and that concerning themselves over money that is hardly their own, and concerns that are curious to why people care so much about how a private business operates.
This year, the Atlanta Braves are the de facto Team X of 2018 Spring Training that is embarking on this journey, as they have just recently assigned 20-year old phenom outfielder Ronald Acuña to minor league camp, where he will remain and begin his season with the Triple-A Gwinnett Strippers Stripers. Despite the fact that he had a blistering Spring Training up to this point where he literally led the big league squad in hitting, batting .432 with 4 home runs and 11 RBI, the Braves have stated the fluffy excuse of how he needs to “work on his flow,” to which not a single person can comprehend what that actually means, but whatever, Acuña is in the minor leagues, and just about any educated baseball fan with a brain would have guessed, was going to happen with 150% certainty.
Everyone knew this was going to happen, so frankly I don’t really understand the increased vitriol when it actually came to fruition. Now both aforementioned links are written by Craig Calcaterra, a writer that I actually like, and regardless of if he’s ever admit it or not, his Braves fandom seeps through pretty prevalently; but I’m curious to why he himself is so up in arms over this obvious inevitability, and why he gets so anti-establishment towards the Braves for choosing to capitalize on this strategic advantage that just about every team other than the Yankees tends to do.
I know that when it comes to the Atlanta Braves Business Stooge Conglomerate, I’m definitely up on the front lines when it comes to calling them on their bullshit. I try my best to separate the baseball team from the company that runs them (and often fail), but as the type of fan that Calcaterra describes that should demand the best decisions from the team, regardless of the future repercussions, I’m still in disagreement with him that artificially suppressing Ronald Acuña was the wrong move.
I get what Craig is saying, that fans should demand the best players on the team at all times, but he also contradicts himself by point at exactly why teams make the choice to artificially hold them back; so that they can have the best players on the team, for a lot longer, by sacrificing two months of their rookie season, so that they can have the player for one more entire season, towards the end of their initial obligations. And frankly, especially considering the fact that the Braves have zero expectations to contend this year (another point that Calcaterra himself points out), I see zero point in ruining tomorrow so that the Braves can have a moderately, but still inconsequentially brighter today.
Despite the fact that Braves prospects have a tendency to flop, there is reason to be optimistic about Ronald Acuña; after all, at the age of 19, he jettisoned through the Braves’ minor league system and despite the gradually increased competition, still excelled and shot to the top of prospect lists not just on the Braves, but throughout all of baseball. And given the fact that he has continued his torrid pace through this year’s Spring Training, there’s even more reason to believe that the Braves would most certainly want to keep him under their employ as long as humanly possible; and that’s where we come to the crossroads that most casual fans don’t really understand.
When a young prospect finally reaches the major leagues, it’s not a set number of years in which the player is obligated to play for the team that drafted them, it’s a set amount of service time on the major league roster they must hit before they are eligible to reach free agency, unless a team cuts them and makes them eligible to be free agents earlier (however if this typically happens, it’s because they’re not that good, and are low risks to make lucrative free agent money). I’m not sure what the approximate number of days is, but it’s somewhere around 860 days on a major league roster before they’re eligible to become free agents.
If you do the math, it’s entirely possible for a player to his 860 days of major league service time within five seasons, but then they’ll be eligible to be free agents and presumable leave the team that drafted them, in five years. But teams today have figured out that by suppressing the service time clock by nearly two months, a young player will hit somewhere around 850 days of major league service within the first five years of their careers, and therefore will still be obligated to that team come year six, and since players can’t just up and leave midway through a season, they’re basically stuck with their team for an entire year more, while they fill out the rest of their 860 days, and give them nearly 160 more as a bonus.
This is exactly why teams do what Braves have just done to Ronald Acuna, to all of their young hotshot prospects. The Nationals’ Bryce Harper dealt with this, as did the Angels’ Mike Trout. The Cubs’ Kris Bryant was also shipped off to the minor leagues until June in spite of hitting like ten home runs in Spring Training that same year. Sure, it definitely hurts the earning power of the players themselves, basically denying them an entire season in which they could have been free agents; but if we’re being chastised for concerning ourselves over the money of baseball teams, why should we concern ourselves over the money of baseball players? After all, these are guys who are getting paid way more than doctors and educators to play a children’s game.
It’s not like Ronald Acuña is going to be making peanuts playing baseball in Triple-A. Triple-A veterans still make more money than I do, and they’re playing baseball six months out of the year. And when Acuña is promoted to the big club in June, he’ll make a prorated league minimum, which in its entirety is still $495,000. To play fucking baseball. Why the fuck should I, or any other baseball fan care that being held in the minors for two months is going to separate a guy from making his first million in three years versus four?
And then benefit to holding Acuña back is that the Braves’ window of opportunity to succeed with Acuña now goes from five years to six, and in the game of baseball, keeping those windows of opportunity are absolutely everything. It’s an excruciatingly difficult game in which a ton of different little factors come into play into making a World Series champion, and the longer a team can keep their window open, the more opportunities they have in order to mix and match and try to come up with the winning formula. Even if it means sacrificing two god damn months for one guy. No one guy is bigger than the team, and when the day is over, I’m hoping to see the Atlanta Braves win a World Series before I die, and give no shits about the financial repercussions of holding Ronald Acuña in the minor leagues for two months.
I shake my head at everyone who bemoans the practice of artificially suppressing prospects, because clearly they’re not big picture, and are aiming more for instant gratification. If your team is on the cusp of contention, and bringing up a prospect at the start of the season is the right move, by all means, make it, regardless of the fact that the kid will be able to jet after five years instead of six. But if your team is like the Braves, Reds, Rays or Athletics, and your windows of opportunity are way more sparse than other teams,’ by all means suppress those prospects and do whatever it takes to milk them for six full years. Baseball players owe baseball teams more than the other way around, and if they’re not okay with that, then nobody’s stopping them from going to play in some other country, or heaven forbid, hanging up their gloves and cleats and going out and getting real fucking jobs.
Can’t wait to see Ronald Acuña suit up for the Braves – in May or June. But until then, I’m kind of intrigued at the idea of possible seeing him up in Gwinnett; preferably when the Durham Bulls are in town, so I might be able to see my boy Jonny Venters, and get to check out all the lame new merch for the Stripers.
