Baseball union to open free agent camp in Florida
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Players Association, answers questions at a news conference in Phoenix in 2017. Clark said this week that the number of rebuilding teams and unsigned free agents in a historically slow market “threatens the very integrity of our game.” Just 53 of 166 players who exercised their free agency rights last November had announced agreements entering Tuesday, down from 99 of 158 at a similar time last year.
NEW YORK >> The baseball players’ union will open its own spring training camp for the first time since the end of the 1994-95 strike, inviting free agents to work out at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Union head Tony Clark said today the camp will open Tuesday and workouts will start the following day under Bo Porter, the Houston Astros’ manager in 2013-14. The camp is scheduled to run through March 4, and the union has the option to extend the camp through the end of the month.
More than 100 players who exercised their right to become free agents last November are without final agreements. Teams start spring training workouts next Wednesday.
Agent Scott Boras represents 15 free agents seeking jobs, a group that includes J.D. Martinez, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Jake Arrieta. His company has its own training facilities in North Miami, Florida, and Newport Beach, California, and he is not sure whether his clients will work out at his facilities or IMG.
“They certainly will have the option to use either,” he said.
The union sent an email to agents announcing the decision. The camp will be open to the players who became free agents under Article XXB of the sport’s collective bargaining agreement, the most prominent group on the market.
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“The location is a dedicated, major league-caliber site, with multiple full/half fields, a private locker room, dedicated training staff and an advanced workout facility with a trainer and strength and conditioning coordinator,” the union said.
Personal trainers will not be allowed inside the facility. Players will be provided workout gear, and the union is arranging liability insurance, travel and housing. Players will be given per diems. They are to bring their own bats and shoes.
The players’ association paid $60,000 in 1995 to rent a training site for three weeks in Homestead, Florida. Twenty-nine players were there when it opened, including Dave Stewart, Todd Stottlemyre, Chris Sabo, Howard Johnson and Mickey Tettleton.
They wore green, blue, black and red jerseys, along with matching caps.
“We’re calling ourselves the Homestead Hobos. We’re all misfits,” utilityman Randy Velarde said.
Larry Walker, Orel Hershiser, John Kruk and Kevin Brown were among the top stars who did not attend the camp because they thought they were close to reaching deals.
