The Braves ultimately benefited from Dallas Keuchel’s lengthy free agency, scooping him off the market with a one-year, $13 million deal that was announced Friday.
Keuchel became this team’s second-largest free agent investment, behind Josh Donaldson’s one-year, $23 million pact. The former MVP signed with the Braves in November. He was among the earliest players to ink a new deal in what was a disturbingly slow market.
Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, two of the league’s premier talents, didn’t have employers until March. Craig Kimbrel, a future Hall of Fame closer, joined the Cubs earlier this week. Keuchel waited a couple of days longer to become a Brave.
When asked about his team’s new addition, Donaldson didn’t mince words about Keuchel’s and Kimbrel’s free-agent experiences.
“To be honest with you, it’s completely embarrassing for Major League Baseball that a guy like that, and Kimbrel, have been on the market for so long,” Donaldson said. “It’s one of those things where you don’t understand it, but it’s working out for our best interest right now.
“To have it working out for our interest (is good), but we shouldn’t have had this opportunity. It should’ve been done a lot earlier for this guy. He’s had a great career. He’s special. A lot of postseason experience. To be able to add him is going to make us better.”
During a conference call with Atlanta media Friday night, Keuchel said he thought the qualifying offer had a notable impact on his market. Free agents tendered qualifying offers by their original clubs come with draft-pick compensation, meaning another team has to forfeit a pick – in the Braves’ case, it was pick No. 60 in the 2019 draft – to sign them.
The state of free agency has been a topic of concern since last winter. Freddie Freeman and several other players have expressed displeasure with where free agency is trending.
"It's a tough situation," Freeman said in February. "It really is. The last two years have been weird. … It's slow. The players and owners, GMs and front offices are just waiting each other out. That's not great for baseball."
Kimbrel landed his desired multi-year deal, but Keuchel didn’t come close to his reported initial asking price. He will be free of draft-pick compensation when he re-enters the market in November, given a player can be given a qualifying offer only once.
“If that’s the case – which I don’t know if that’s the case or not – then yeah, it’s ridiculous,” Donaldson said of draft picks affecting free agency. “The guy has won a Cy Young. He’s been healthy. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t have been signed already.”
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