Why Is This A Bad Thing?

by Paul Semendinger

January 12, 2024

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I have a quick question for our readers...

One trope we hear time and again, and we heard it a lot following the Yankees' failure to sign Yamamoto, is, "The agent only used the Yankees to drive up the price."

This leads me to ask a serious question.

If the player wasn't going to be a Yankee anyway, why would it be bad that the Yankees were used to drive up the player's cost?

Wouldn't that mean that the team that signs that player would have less money to bid on the next player?

I hear that statement a lot, but I really don't understand this line of thinking.

I am very interested in reading what others think of this. What am I missing?

I look forward to the discussion below.