Players On Loan

by Mike Siegel on Jan 30, 2012 9:24 AM PST

A thought came to me the other day that was intriguing. I have no idea why this popped into my head, but it did, so I thought I'd share it with AN. In Major League Soccer, and Futbol all around the world players can be "sold" on loan to play for another team for 10 games, half a season, and even a full season if that's what gets worked out. Basically it is whatever contract the team who has the player makes with the team who wants the player. This can be for many different reasons, sometimes salary relief, sometimes bigger incentives. Some of the biggest names in MLS have been on loan in recent rimes: Beckham, Donovan, Buddle, Cummings. I understand that these loans were from an MLS team to a European team. Thus that team would never play or affect the MLS. If loans were available in the MLB things would have to be very different.

It is just an idea, but what do you think about loans in Major League Baseball? I see it being used mostly as salary relief for a year and even mid-season. This way you don't have to pay a certain players contract for that season or half-season and another team will take it on. If a team is shopping a loan on a player and multiple teams have an interest in him then the holding team can create a bidding war for the loan. This way the holding team can not only get the player's salary off of their payroll, but also get some cash to add to their payroll.

This could really help a team in many different ways. If they need to free up money so they can sign another player, etc... For example, if the A's had a high paid relief pitcher that was on contract for 4 more years, but because of payroll cuts the team is keeping their payroll low. The team is in need of a 3B to compete and they have a surplus of relief pitchers. This way they can send that relief pitcher to a team who is in need and use the money that they were paying him to get a 1-2 year contract with a 3B FA. Or teams can be looking ahead to the following years: After seeing that they can't compete come July. The A's can send Crisp somewhere on loan and give their young OF's a chance for the rest of the season. Crisp will be back the very next year and they can add 1/2 of his salary to their payroll for the following year.

There are many different situations a player loan can be used. There will have to be some regulations, but overall it could potentially work. I'm not sure if I would be for or against this yet, but it is an interesting idea.

What do you think?

Poll

Should the MLB incorporate Player Loans?

Yes

16 votes

No

37 votes

Maybe

3 votes

56 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Are those MLS players on loan, or just short-term contracts?

Most of the loan arrangements I’m familiar with in futbol involve a top-level team “farming out” their prospects to lower-level teams so that they can gain some real-game experience without jeopardizing their own team’s results. Sometimes it’s salary relief — like Manchester City loaning Addebayor to Spurs this year — but most of the time it’s loaning someone down the ladder, so to speak.

Landon Donovan playing for Everton during part of the MLS offseason isn’t the same thing. It’s more like someone playing in the Winter Leagues, except of course in this case the Winter League is much, much better than the regular one!

MLB handles that situation with minor league systems, though. If you broke?) young players to the minors.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jan 30, 2012 9:34 AM PST reply actions

Intersting

That’s an interesting idea. Sending people in the minors to the big leagues on other teams that need the help. That can be an option as well if MLB had loans. Like the Yanks farm system could send a couple players to the Astros or another non-competing team. Maybe there can be loan trades and the Astro’s have a big league guy that the Yanks want for the year because of an injured star player or whatever. The Astro’s can send that guy to the Yanks and free up their payroll and receive a minor league player that they can play on the big league roster for the season. Then at the end of the season (when the Yanks player is healed and the minor leaguer has MLB experience) they swap back.

When Victor Martinez went down for the season DET could have got Billy Butler on loan from KCto fill the DH spot. Thus taking on Butler’s 8mil 2012 salary and not necessarily having to sign Fielder to that monster contract (DET said they didn’t even contact Fielder until they found out about Martinez). KC would have got 8mil salary relief to pick up a couple players, sign some extensions, or just save it until next year when they have Butler back and 8 mil on top of that. In the “trade loan” theory, DET could have sent their best prospect( that isn’t playing because DET has a super team) to KC, where he could be on the 25 man in KC.

by Mike Siegel on Jan 30, 2012 10:05 AM PST up reply actions

See, I think the loan system comes out of a completely different concept of a league

MLB teams are franchises of MLB (and MLS teams are franchises of MLS). Futbol clubs are independent businesses that agree to play games under the auspices of a Football Association. Baseball in particular has evolved from a plantation system, essentially, in which a player was owned by a team for life. Nothing like that history has existed in football, where players have been jumping from club to club for generations, and also where clubs get promoted and relegated every season.

So the concept of a draft, or owning a player’s rights, or a salary cap, or revenue sharing, are pretty alien to most futbol leagues. Hell, in Spain the clubs in La Liga don’t even share tv revenue. I think the concept of loaning players evolves out of that system. It doesn’t make much sense in a system like MLB, where teams are franchises in a fixed cartel with elaborate rules about which players get to play for which teams.

The scenario of the Yankees loaning players to the Astros would make sense if each MLB team were independent; there were no draft, no reserve clause (that is, every player is always a FA unless he’s actually under contract), and no minor league systems. The Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies and other rich teams would sign as many talented players as they could (just as they did before the draft was instituted) and then, assuming there were no “bonus baby” rule, they would “loan” players out wherever it seemed appropriate — Trenton, Staten Island, Houston, Oakland. Oakland would never even dream of winning a championship (just as Wigan and NAC Breda and Bologna never dream of winning anything, either) — their business model would involve making smart loan deals and selling players on to the Big Boys at a profit. Maybe not so different from the status quo at the moment…

I don’t see how that kind of system makes sense in a franchise-based league with a draft, and bonus limits, and a reserve clause, and free agent compensation, and also a rule limiting the amount of money a player can be sold for (which, IIRC, is $400,000).

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jan 30, 2012 10:26 AM PST up reply actions