Every player is replaceable

Phil Gurnee ♦ November 8, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Why is that a controversial comment? Bill James said out loud what every GM has ever thought for the history of baseball. Or maybe not everyone, but certainly quite a few.

Players come, players go, the constant is the game, not the players. Agents don’t want to hear this, fans don’t want to hear this, but I think it is true.

The Red Sox were quick to disavow their consultant.

The #RedSox Statement Regarding Bill James’ Recent Remarks: pic.twitter.com/JffB08Hqad

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) November 8, 2018

Which they kind of had to do, but I was more surprised at the comments from baseball journalists.

This holds about as much weight as “No baseball player below Triple-A matters.”

The fact Bill James is advising at the Major League level and making comments like this is seriously concerning.https://t.co/muxmAiudnC pic.twitter.com/XELoStmhaF

— Emily Waldon (@EmilyCWaldon) November 8, 2018

Bill James didn’t say you could replace Verlander with a AAA pitcher and everything would be the same, he just said that every player is replaceable and if everyone retired today, in three years the game would be pretty much the same. I think it would. Heck, you can’t even get baseball to touch the 30 and over free agents right now.

Nobody wants baseball’s 30-something free agents anymore. 😞 https://t.co/oLNm4xc1w3

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) November 8, 2018

Just for fun imagine that the 2017 Dodgers all retired who were projected to make the 2018 25 man roster on March 1st. This is what the 2018 team would have looked like.

1st – Edwin Rios

2nd – Max Muncy / Brevvic Valeria

SS –  Donovan Solano

3rd – Beatty  / Connor Joe

C –  Farmer / Rocky Gale

RF – Alex Verdugo

CF – Tim Locastro

LF – Andrew Toles

SP – Walker Buehler, Brock Stewart, Dennis Santana, Caleb Ferguson, Manny Banuelos

RP – Pat Vendite, Brian Schlitter, Shea Spitzbarth, Josh Sborz, Marshall Kasowski

Not ideal but in competition against every other team who lost all their major league players, that team probably is playing in October. In three years that could look like:

1st – Max Muncy

2nd – Drew Jackson / Omar Estevez

SS – Gavin Lux

3rd – Will Smith

C – Keibert Ruiz

RF – Alex Verdugo

CF – DJ Peters

LF – Andrew Toles

SP – Buehler, Urias, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Mitch White

RP – Alvarez, Kasowski, Ferguson, Sheffield, Uceta

Yeah, it ain’t your 2018 World Series Dodgers but it might have a CYA in Buehler. It would still bring 3,000,000 fans to the ballpark and remember they would be competing against every other team who lost all of their players from March 1st, 2018.
Just saying if every major league player retired on March 1st, 2018, the game would have some bumps but in the end, the game would look pretty much the same by October 2021.

I think all of his was about labor. I don’t really give a shit about the major league salaries, but I sure would like to see the minor league folk taken care of.  Or maybe the carrot of being paid like a major league baseball player is what drives them to work hard but it just seems to me that removing the anxiety of trying to make a living on minimum wage salaries while also preparing to be a major league baseball player would benefit the system.