Blue Jays' Turner believes talent left in free agency is 'a black eye on baseball'

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Finding a new home took longer than expected for Justin Turner during this strangely slow-paced off-season. Yet in signing with the Toronto Blue Jays on Jan. 30, he fared much better than many other free agents, stars among them, who are still in limbo nearly a week into spring training.

“It’s just frustrating,” Turner said Monday, as position players reported to Blue Jays camp ahead of Tuesday’s first full-squad workout. “It’s frustrating, obviously, for the guys in the free agency class. It’s frustrating for a lot of teams around the league trying to figure out where some of these guys are going to go. It’s kind of a little bit of a black eye on baseball. You have all these guys that are all-star, Cy Young, batting title, Rookie of the Year guys on the free-agent market and they're having a hard time finding a job. I don't think it’s a good look.”

Among the dozens of players unsigned are reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, Texas Rangers post-season star Jordan Montgomery, all-star Michael Lorenzen, former NL MVP Cody Bellinger and, of course, Matt Chapman, who won a Gold Glove at third base with the Blue Jays a year ago.

Other accomplished players available include Michael A. Taylor, Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Brandon Belt, Robbie Grossman, Hyun Jin Ryu and Canadian Joey Votto, the 40-year-old likely future Hall of Famer.

The relative aggressiveness of clubs during the previous two off-seasons had dulled some industry questions about why teams had slowed the pace of signings in the winters ahead of the 2020-21 owners’ lockout of players. 

But this winter – which started the free agencies of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto strangling the market’s pace before powerful agent Scott Boras took control with clients Snell, Montgomery, Bellinger and Chapman – has rekindled past concerns. 

Last week, when asked about the number of free agents lingering, commissioner Rob Manfred said the league “would prefer to have a free-agent signing period, ideally, probably in December with a deadline that drove people to make their deals, get things settled,” but proposals to the players union “were not warmly received.”

He then seemed to blame agents for the ongoing impasse, saying “one of the tactics that's available to player representatives is to stretch the negotiation and believe that they're going to get a better deal. That's part of the system right now. There's not a lot we can do about it. But, certainly from an aspirational perspective, we'd rather have two weeks of flurried activity in December, preferably around the winter meetings where you’re all there to write about it and we all get excited about the upcoming year. That’ll be a project in the next go-around.”

Turner didn’t want to delve into Manfred’s comments — “that’s above my pay grade obviously,” he said with a grin — but added, “I’d like to see everyone signed as soon as possible, I just don't know how that would work.”

“What happens if someone doesn’t get signed in that period? Then what? They're not allowed to play baseball anymore? There are a lot of unknowns,” he continued. “I guess on paper it's a good idea. But actually figuring out how to make that work, I don't know. … 

“You don't know if it's actually going to help players or if it’s going to hurt them. If their backs are against the wall and they’re up against deadline, are they going to get the best deal in free agency that they could? Maybe not. We just don’t know how that would look.”

Either way, significant opportunity remains in the free-agent market.

The Blue Jays have added two players since camp opened, signing Eduardo Escobar and Daniel Vogelbach to minor-league deals, but GM Ross Atkins last week downplayed the potential for major moves, saying “additions that would be of significance would mean some level of subtraction.”

Given the talent still available, a series of free-agent signings may, perhaps, trigger a round of spinoff moves before teams are fully set. And with their volume of infielders and the need to fully leverage the two remaining years in their competitive window, the Blue Jays have an avenue to be active. 

Turner, for his part, is enjoying his new environment, getting to know new teammates after the late scramble he faced to get ready for a spring in Dunedin and season in Toronto.

“For nine years in L.A., I kind of took that stuff for granted and didn't really give enough credit to guys who were moving across the country, trying to find actually two houses, spring training housing and in the city you're playing in,” said Turner. “It’s definitely not fun, trying to figure out where you’re going to stay, trying to figure out where my wife and the dogs are going to be, in a safe area. I have a newfound respect for guys that have to do that every year. It’s definitely a challenge.”

One complicated this year by an ongoingly unsettled free agent market.