Free agency used to represent a player's greatest leverage in baseball, his mightiest bargaining chip. But during the past few months, it's now looking like his biggest fear. Or put another way, something that's best avoided, if at all possible.
How else can we explain the sport's recent craze for contract extensions? Using Clayton Kershaw as the starting point _ the Dodgers ace re-upped on Nov. 2 for three years and $93 million _ a total of 30 players, with varying service time, signed extensions worth a combined $2.2 billion.
Those are players who chose to double-down with their current teams, and in many cases, pass on the opportunity to hit the open market in the very near future. Nolan Arenado (eight years, $260M), Paul Goldschmidt (five years, $130M), Justin Verlander (two years, $66M), Chris Sale (five years, $145M) and Xander Bogaerts (six years, $120M) were supposed to be the elite of next winter's free-agent class, a mere season away from auctioning off their services to the highest bidder.
