Reese Kaplan -- What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

This week there was not one but two long strange trips for pro ballplayers.  One of them directly impacted the New York Mets and one may just be a blueprint for future prospects who are not happy with the financial restrictions offered by the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

On Wednesday veteran outfielder Rajai Davis was in the midst of his warmup drills in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania when he learned he was needed at Citifield with Brandon Nimmo hitting the IL for his yeat unspecified neck pain issues.  He immediately showed one of the huge advantages of having your AAA team in closer proximity to the big club as he was able to travel by Uber for 2 hours to get from the minors back to the majors.  Arriving during the third inning he apparently had gotten lost in the search for the Mets’ clubhouse and wound up dressing for the game not long before he was summoned to pinch hit in the 8^th inning.  He channeled his inner World Series heroics against Aroldis Chapman when that night instead he took out his only occasional long ball vengeance on Nationals’ closer Sean Doolittle which capped a six-run inning and gave him one of the most memorable debuts of any player in Mets history.

However, his long strange trip to the majors is pablum compared to prospect Carter Stewart who may have indeed found a win-win situation that others will seek to emulate as they make the transition from high school or college to the major leagues.  The 6’6”, 225 pounder hits the mid 90s regularly and touches the upper 90s with his fastball while freezing batters with a hard-thrown curve.   The Braves spent their first round pick on Stewart but were unable to come to terms with him and he went to college, planning to reenter the draft after being eligible to do so next month.

You can’t fault a guy for doing what’s best for his career and in his own way being crazy like a fox ought to pay off in spades.  The 18 year old has signed a contract to play for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in Japan.  By most accounts the Nippon Professional League is about what we would consider AAAA compared to the United States, but we’ve seen a number of high profile successes come across the Pacific to star here.

Why this particular case is interesting is the $7 million minimum guaranteed money offered by the Fukuoka ballclub.  The CBA limits American initial contracts to a maximum of $2 million (and there’s no guarantee he would even get that much).  He turned down the lesser money (along with the long bus rides and mediocre living conditions) to start his professional baseball career in Japan which normally had been the last hope for minor leaguers and fringe major leaguers hoping to cash in towards the end of their careers. 

Here’s where it gets really interesting.  At the end of his 7-year deal the young man will be just 25 years old and a free agent once again.  At that point he will likely turn his head towards the USA and a huge payday from teams looking for young starters to propel them into contention.  If he has succeeded in Japan, he will get exactly what he wants.  If he doesn’t, then he will have been paid rather handsomely in better living conditions than had he opted to sign with an American club.

Going into negotiations for the next CBA the powers that be had better starting thinking long and hard how to address this scenario lest it become far more commonplace.  Recently the St. Louis Cardinals reached over to Japan to pluck starter Miles Mikolas who was a bit older but still in his 20s.  How’d that work out for them?  Unless the USA can become more competitive in its initial offerings, you will see a talent drain as the global marketplace offers greater opportunities.