soxtalker
07-18-2002, 11:01 AM
I caught a very brief discussion with Peter Gammons on ESPN radio today of the trade market. He had been talking earlier about other things, but I turned on the radio just as the discussion turned to trades. This is what I think that he said, though, of course, there is always a chance that I misunderstood what he really was saying. (If anyone knows of a written source, that would be better.) Nevertheless, it does bring up an interesting twist on the trading environment.
It appears that the trade market may be changing dramatically, because everyone expects that compensation picks will be eliminated. The reason for this is that it removes any control that the players' union has over the draft. Now, this has a big impact on trades at the trading deadline. Teams that are out of the race (e.g., Sox) may be much more likely to pay the salary of the soon-to-be free agents (e.g., Durham) as long as they can get some prospects in return. It isn't clear whether all GM's (on the selling side) have picked up on this change in the market.
It appears that the trade market may be changing dramatically, because everyone expects that compensation picks will be eliminated. The reason for this is that it removes any control that the players' union has over the draft. Now, this has a big impact on trades at the trading deadline. Teams that are out of the race (e.g., Sox) may be much more likely to pay the salary of the soon-to-be free agents (e.g., Durham) as long as they can get some prospects in return. It isn't clear whether all GM's (on the selling side) have picked up on this change in the market.