Excitement is Coming, but is it Enough?

If you’ve followed Major League Baseball for any period, you’re well aware that things get done within the funnel of time constraints. The trade deadline is when players get moved, like the day of, not weeks before. Free-agent signings happen during the Winter Meetings or as Spring Training begins. Even with this lockout, the owners went 40-plus days while offering nothing, and the only reason wheels are creaking is because games (exhibition at this point, but still) are threatened to be lost.
 
That’s why the point at which teams raced to spend dollars and acquire talent before December 1st was amazing.
 
Baseball fans were treated to utter madness. Clubs spent over $1 billion in contracts, and big-name stars were headed all over the baseball landscape. It was a breakneck pace, and the only question was whether Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, or Jeff Passan would send the tweets out first. In something truly unparalleled for baseball fans, there was a free agent frenzy.
 
If there’s a silver lining to this current lockout, it’s that we should get it again. Another acquisition frenzy has to be coming, and it will be time influenced once again. Whether regular-season games are lost or not, the reality is pitchers and catchers were originally intended to report within two weeks. We’re about two months from Opening Day, and ramp-up time is needed on top of relocation and adjustment periods. Add in the fact that there are hundreds of players still waiting to see which team they’ll get deals from in 2022, and it’s going to be crazy.
 
For Minnesota specifically, the rotation remains bare, a shortstop is not currently on the roster, and there’s something like $50 million to be handed out. Assuming the Twins go the trade route, they’ll need to make those intentions known quickly and follow up on any conversations they were having pre-lockout. The 40-man roster has room to improve, and the 26-man isn’t constructed in a manner that would be competitive per the suggestion from the front office.
 
So yes, again, time and the calendar suggest this will happen. The question is will it matter?
 
You, the reader here at Twins Daily, will probably care. You’re invested enough to be reading about your favorite team, and interest remains during the offseason or through a lockout. For the casual fan, the league might have lost. Rather than capitalizing on the opportunity and momentum from early December, they’ll now be competing with an NBA season at its peak, an NHL season coming full circle, and trying to distance from an NFL postseason that has truly stolen the show. While the offseason certainly isn’t for everyone, a complete shutdown as instituted by Rob Manfred isn’t going to make the league any more relevant.
 
I don’t know how baseball will handle free agency in the future, but it’s clear that turning it into an event like its competition makes things exciting. We experienced that in December and will again soon, but in terms of growing the sport and wanting those on the fringes to come back, this probably isn’t going to move the needle.