The Lunatic Fringe

Seriously, Carlos Beltran’s contract does not allow the offering of arbitration, meaning no draft picks can be received for him.  Unfortunately, Scott Boras recognized that draft picks are becoming so valuable that, for a team, the threat of losing a pick for signing him makes him less valuable (and they’re right).

Still, it screws the system for teams that rebuild through the draft, like all teams should be.

For a Giants team of whom budget is a major concern, this is just a kick in the teeth.

There is one hope, however.  This rule only applies after the arbitration deadline, which is December 7th.  If Beltran is signed before that date, as far as I can tell, then he’d net a pair of draft picks.  With a very shallow OF market (only 11 ranked outfield free agents are out there, and two of them are Cody Ross and Pat Burrell, both Type B’s), a team might want to get a leg up on the competition and be willing to sacrifice the draft picks to beat out teams unwilling to do that.

I don’t know if that’ll work (I’m going off of what I know of the arbitration/compensation process), but one can hope.

Even if it works out that way, the draft/compensation process is broken.  It’s time to fix things, Bud!