Free Agency

When it comes to free agency the purpose to give players who have been around a few years a chance to go to another team of their free choice instead of the draft or being traded; of course, I can say it isn’t always a free choice.  When it comes to the three major sports free agency seems to work out differently.

In the NBA free agency works a bit different than the other two major sports. Though the players after a few years can go to another team the team they are playing for can offer the most money under the collective bargaining agreement. The NBA has a salary cap but teams can go above it with signing their own players. Most of the top players usually stay with their team; however, there are exceptions. For example, Lebron James a few years ago decided to go play for Miami Heat though he could sign up again the Cleveland Cavaliers. This last year he decided to go back to the Cavaliers being a free agent again. In many cases the top players going to another team will make a sign and trade. Other words he will sign the maximum with his original team and then be traded to the team he wants to play for. This allows the original team gets a player or more in return. The NBA though still does a lot of trading of players instead.

In major league baseball there is some movement in free agency; however, trades is the most common way a team will do to make their team better. Usually free agency happens when a team is looking for a specific need to be made. For example, this season the Seattle Mariners signed Nelson Cruz as a free agent because they need a power hitter in the middle of their lineup who also batted from the right side because they had a lot of left handed batters in their lineup. They did make a couple additional trades to improve their lineup as well.  A few other teams paid out a lot of money for the top pitchers.

The NFL is the sport that has a lot of free agency going on. It is the primary way for a team to get better really fast.  Generally teams do not make a lot of trades in the NFL. If a team does make a trade it usually high profile like the Seattle Seahawks made last week in getting Jimmy Graham from New Orleans. The teams that do the most in free agency are the bad teams who have room under their salary caps or a good team that feel a free agency can help them get to the next level in the playoffs. Also, a lot of free agency happens because teams release players who have high salaries, and the players in the NFL contracts are not guaranteed like they are in the NBA or major league baseball. Another thing they may have a player who is eligible for free agency but they cannot afford to keep them because of the salary cap. When it comes to players the NFL teams can only afford to keep a few high priced players on their roster.  Most teams you will see quite the change in rosters each year especially among backup players.  The ones you likely will see continue for several years are those players that are on special teams. They are players that are very good on special teams.  Most rookies that come in each year make their teams because of special teams.

So you can see how free agency works in the different three sports. The only thing common is to make their teams better. If you are a backup player in any of the sports to be able to stick around as long as you can is to have some special skill, and get better each year to be successful.