Loyalty, a Fleeting Luxury

A week or so ago MLB Trade Rumors highlighted the hot start that Alex Gordon is off to, and the obvious implications of that quick start for his trade value. In their writeup, MLB Trade Rumors noted that “…Gordon has 10-and-5 rights, meaning he’d be able to kibosh any trade, and his lofty salary ($20MM this year and a $4MM buyout in 2020) further complicates matters.” 10-and-5 rights, which are awarded to players who have spent ten years in the league and five years with their current team, imbue players with veto powers in the case of any potential trade. 

10-and-5 rights don’t come up so often, and it’s not hard to imagine them coming up less and less frequently in coming years.

Baseball is more competitive than ever. Average player ages are shrinking this century. Even more than a decade ago, the average MLB player didn’t collect enough service time to enter into free agency; more likely than not, it’s harder still to get there today. 

Offseason free agency outcomes indicate lesser demand for those tricenarian players who might come at a slightly higher cost than players under team-determined rookie contracts. Baseball is indeed a business, and one in which experience seemingly means less and less.  

As a result, players are pushed out of the game earlier than they would want. Minor League contracts with (or without) invitations to Spring Training are commonplace. The Mets’ average age is 28.88 years old, older than the seasonal average MLB batter since 2010. Not the New York Mets, by the way, the Syracuse Mets.

All of these trends collide to create a tough landscape for veterans, and an increasingly perilous journey to earning 10-and-5 rights. According to this article, published last year in USA Today, Sergio Romo was set to become just the 82nd MLB player with 10 years of service time. That means, as of the summer of 2018, less than 11 percent of MLB players were ten-year veterans.

Even rarer are cases in which players have been able to play out their entire careers with a single franchise. In those cases, incentives align for all parties, enabling at least a semblance (authentic, artificial, or otherwise) of mutual and benevolent loyalty.

Very simply, players must be exceptionally talented, durable, and fortunate. The table below highlights just how infrequent these instances of loyalty have become in today’s game:

Just ten active players appear to have played for one franchise alone at the highest level and have accrued ten years of MLB service time along the way. You’ll notice too that there is a common denominator among them: they are all really quite good. Clearly, being a role player or serviceable fill-in does not often translate to long-term relationships with a single franchise.  

They each average at least roughly three WAR per year of service time. They each played well enough to secure long term deals that extended past their potential free agency. Nearly all, with the exception of Elvis Andrus, were drafted or signed by the team they remain with today. Nearly all, with the exception of Brett Gardner, made their debut (thus pushing up their free agency eligibility) before their 24th birthday. The amount of innings and plate appearances also indicate that these players have largely avoided injury throughout their careers.  

So, of the 750 active MLB players, just 10 can boast a ten-plus year major league career with a solitary franchise. A small cohort, to be sure. Surprisingly small? Increasingly, not.