Itās free agency season. As of 12:01am today, all free agents are eligible to negotiate with all teams.
ESPN has my free agent tracker of choice. Take a look at it now while all free agents are rated āNRā which I guess stands for āNo Regretsā.
The average age of the 167 eligible free agents is 33.9 years old but that includes Brad Ausmus who I thought retired. That skews it a bit by probably a tenth of the year or so.
Ausmus isnāt the oldest though. That honor belongs to reliever Trevor Hoffman who might like to add to his all-time leading 601 career saves in 2011.
Which team lost the most players to free agency? The answer might surprise you. The Tampa Bay Rays who succumbed twelve players including six pitchers.
Why didn’t the Brewers sign Coco Cordero last year instead of going out and pickup up broken down Eric Gagne? Luckily for Milwaukee Solomon Torres stepped into the closer’s job, and did a credible job – 28 saves, then he retired. So now, once again, the Brewers were without a closer, until they reached an agreement with the alltime career saves leader, Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman played his rookie year with the Marlins, but spent the last 15 years in Southern California, with the San Diego Padres. Last year he converted 30 of 34 opportunities, with a 3.82 ERA.