I think it's more default and structural than it is coordinated. The last two World Series winners completely and totally tanked and are now power house teams. Probably half of the teams in baseball are not actively trying to compete in 2018, so why sign 32 year old free agents? When you add in the fact that most contracts tend to be bad, and next year's abundance, you have a recipe for what we are seeing.
I really think that beyond Darvish, there isn't a whole lot of appeal remaining in the top of the class. It would make sense for a dormant giant team like the Phillies to really aggressively go get Darvish. He's someone who I think if you are thinking about competing over the next four or five years, will be very useful. In that respect, although there's the requisite injury risks, I don't think it would be insane folly for the Pirates to go after him. If he's going to be down to what Jordan Zimmerman got, or less (5 years, 110), then you have the chance to pay a premium for a top flight pitcher who has as good a chance as any to age relatively well. Obviously, there's no chance in hell that it happens, but it would only put them back in the ballpark of where they were willing to spend a bit ago. And by fuzzy math, you have about 2/3rds of what Darvish would make being cleared after this season if you trust internal replacements for S-Rod, Freese, and Hudson, and 10 mil more if you end up moving Harrison.
In a sense, both the top end and the bottom end of the market give the lie to whatever kind of weird re-tooling the Pirates are doing right now. Being wholly conservative has utterly failed them and is only going to continue to do so. I can get on board with the idea that for a mediocre team, it's better to get some kind of asset and a prospect than a final, hopeless year for McCutchen, and I can even buy into the spread quantity over one flier quality, unproven prospect with the Cole deal - banking (and bracketing) on the idea that Cole wouldn't improve his value with the Pirates (bracketing because that is largely due to the Pirates philosophy) - but in that case, turn back around and make some impact in the market. Darvish + a depth outfielder is probably going to put you just a bit above the payrolls from a few years back, and makes you more officially in the WC conversation.
Away from fantasyland world, I do think that the more middling, cusp-teams like the Rockies, Brewers, etc., should be jumping into this market and doing what they can. Just as a matter of fact, barring weird circumstances there is basically no way that certain teams can compete for many of the top free agents, all of the new rules and everything considered. As we know, that means you have to draft and develop, and make smart trades and value free agent signings. Given this reality, if you have the chance to wade into a weak market and get some discounted, still flawed talent, there's no reason to stick to some kind of formula.
