Kenley Jansen On Painfully Slow Offseason: "Maybe We Should Go On Strike And Fix That"

If you thought that the Brewers trading for Christian Yelich and signing Lorenzo Cain was going to kickstart this miserably slow offseason, then you are sadly mistaken. On Thursday of this week, the calendar will turn to February, the same month that players traditionally flock to their respective spring training camps, and guys like Yu Darvish, JD Martinez, Jake Arrieta, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Jonathan Lucroy are still free agents.

Something’s up. I’m sure you’re well aware of that by now, that this is not normal and incredibly frustrating for the players involved, as well as the fans of the teams who are reportedly linked to these players. Regardless of what the actual cause is for the unprecedented holdup, collusion, teams getting smarter, Scott Boras, whatever — the fact is that the system is broken and something needs to be done about it. Whose responsibility is it to do something about it? Well, if it’s not the league, then it very well just might be the players themselves.

Here’s what Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen had to say about the matter at the team’s fan fast this past weekend.

“That is something we might have to address, so you don’t have a lot of Miami Marlins doing this,” Jansen said. “Maybe it’s an adjustment for us, as the players’ union. Maybe we have to go on strike, to be honest with you. That’s how I feel about it. Maybe I could say that, for me, maybe we should go on strike and fix that. Maybe not. I think it’s a thing we maybe address that to the union. I’m not going to say that to you guys.”

The reason why these comments are so interesting is because A.) This is the first time that a player has used the S-word as a reaction to the holdup in free agency, and B.) It’s coming from a player who isn’t even a free agent. Jansen signed a five-year, $80 million contract to stay with the Dodgers last winter, so this is simply a player standing up for his fellow players to get fair pay, and to also get it in a timely fashion.

I’m sure the players who are still jobless this late into the offseason would love to sound off on how teams have handled this free agent class, but that’s not exactly the best look when you’re trying to sell your best attributes to a potential suitor. Being whiny isn’t exactly a desired quality — cough, Adrian Gonzalez, cough.

But if you’re a baseball fan who is now panicking over the thought of players actually going on strike, Bill Shaikin of the LA times provides some clarity on what would be the first player strike in Major League Baseball since 1994.

It remains uncertain whether players and agents might work with union leadership, or might consider new leadership, in trying to reverse the trend in which players appear to get a declining share of baseball’s growing revenue. The collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2021 season, so any strike probably would take place during the 2021 season.

Phew! I thought we’d be fucked right now. Turns out, we’ll be fucked in three years, and then we’ll need Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to come out of retirement, take a shitload of steroids and save baseball again in 2022.