This offseason feels so strange with the 2 big FAs still in limbo leading up to spring training.
It's the new norm in baseball - look at how late JD and Arietta signed last year, among others. Part of it is just Bora$ and other agents playing the waiting game to a science. Just like nobody wants to negotiate a hockey CBA till January, nobody wants to negotiate a big baseball contract till just before spring training anymore. There's no salary cap like in the other sports which amps up the urgency for both sides to get deals done.
Plus on the owners' side they aren't as willing to give the stupid offers as they've been in the past. The union calls it collusion and I wouldn't really put it past the owners (they've done it before, after all!) but I just think it's too many teams tanking to begin with + analytics + owners being beaten over the head one too many times with almost every big money, big term contract being a disaster. For every Scherzer there's ten guys like Pujols, A-Rod, Cabrera, Votto, etc...guys worth the money when they sign but then when they start to go downhill there's still multiple years left on their deals and the contracts become an albatross. Hell that's part of why the Mets are so gunshy about spending - Wright, Cespedes, Santana, Pedro, etc.