CM – Deadspin corrects American sports: we must abolish the trades

Granted, I spent the week in a blind rage thanks to the MLB trade deadline. And that’s because my old baseball fan, the Cubs, puts on a show. But I wrote this article and I might have to rewrite it later today if this was the day the Cubs would ship Kris Bryant to the three kids selling lemonade down the street from your house.

But that applies to all sports, and at the risk of being a soccer fan once again to tell you all that’s wrong with American sports (you probably have four or five in your life now), the idea of ​​a profession has always struck me as bizarre, illogical and unfair.

We know why exchanges exist in our sports and not elsewhere (there are exchange agreements in other places, but the players themselves have to accept them). The leagues here are descending entities, not ascending as is the case in most countries. There the teams formed the league. Here, the league formed the teams (expansion teams, franchises, etc.).

So basically even though we think of players by the team they’re on, what they really are are MLB players or NFL players who were once assigned to a team via the draft ( mainly) and which are then in the system. They are all under the envelope of this league and therefore can be traded. Obviously, the monopolistic nature of these leagues, or their marked rise from any other league in the world, also plays a role.

Of course, many of you could transfer into your job. Happens all the time. Except it has to do with your job and you as an individual. And really, you could refuse (most of the time? I’m just learning how the adult world works. It’s my first real job, so you’ll have to be patient). You are not transferred to Taos just because your boss wanted another QA manager in a completely different department.

So take last night. The Yankees wanted Joey Gallo, so four players in their system have to completely uproot their lives, maybe go somewhere they don’t know anyone, and basically start their world over outside of baseball, and even inside. Now they’re minor leaguers so they can sleep in their car anywhere and everything will look pretty much like them while MLB keeps fucking them .. But you get it. With those at the highest level, they randomly discover that they have to change families – or live apart from families – in a new city because their team wanted someone else. How is that fair, really?

Of course, players were familiar with the drill when they entered professional sport. But there was also a time when they knew there was the reservation clause, and that a team could keep you indefinitely. That changed with free agency. This should too.

If the Yankees want Joey Gallo, they should just pay the Rangers to be entitled to have him, for whatever Rangers deem to be the right price, with Gallo’s deal. If it’s $ 30 million. Or $ 50 million, whatever. And then the Rangers have that extra money to go get the prospects they want wherever they want, or maybe real MLB players, God forbid.

Perhaps a rule could, or should be instituted, that all transfer fees should be reintegrated into payroll, or at least a certain percentage of them do. Because we might see someone like Pirates owner Bob Nutting (or yes, Tom Ricketts of the Cubs) seeing that selling players directly leads to even more money than they can just put in their pockets. But those claims of not being able to afford a competitor would ring even more hollow than they do now.

This goes hand in hand with the abolition of the draft in all sports, which should also happen and should have happened decades ago. Everyone should be able to decide where and for whom they want to work, at all levels. Having to completely change your life just because the team you were playing for added a new player is just as ridiculous as the draft or reserve clause. It is time we recognized it.