Millions of dollars. Your choice of multiple offers. Wining and dining. Swag. Perks. Private jets. A better version of the lottery. Such are the images we have come to associate with MLB free agency, especially after teams have just forked over $2.6 billion in the 49th go-round of the free-agent carousel that began with the 1976 Basic Agreement.
For Corbin Burnes, one of the top pitchers on the market, the reality of free agency was more prosaic. It included only three offers, lots of talk about day care and school commutes, five weeks that went by with nothing but crickets from his family’s preferred destination, advice from his agent, Scott Boras, about patience, just one in-person visit and only one piece of swag—the Toronto Blue Jays let him keep a tablet pre-loaded with recruiting material about the organization’s facilities and support staff.
