A hurricane of activity: 8 things that will happen once the MLB lockout ends

When (and if) baseball resumes in 2022, general managers will work much like NFL coaches at the start of games, with their first moves scheduled. At the start of the transaction, you can almost imagine Red Sox honcho Chaim Bloom, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and his teammates looking at laminated cards, calling plays on headphones.

Baseball executives have had nothing to do but plan for more than two months. Similarly, agents have spent days planning their first phone calls after business resumes, and when (and if) it does, there will be a hurricane of activity.

This is something that many in the industry expect:

1. Freddie Freeman will sign quickly.

The presumption among many rival executives last year was that Freeman and the Braves would eventually come to terms. But Freeman wasn’t among the stars signed to a pre-lockout deal, even after the Braves won the World Series and the franchise operated in championship glitz (and cash infusion). So the view of the industry has changed; there is a growing belief that Freeman will land somewhere outside of Atlanta due to the impasse in his negotiations. The Braves offered $135 million over five years, sources say, and Freeman is seeking a six-year deal.

“I think that [los Bravos] they will move quickly to decide on an alternative and move forward to get through the conversation,” an official said.

Maybe that’s a deal for matt olson from Oakland. Maybe they’ll sign Anthony Rizzo. But Freeman’s negotiations turned into a competition, and as one agent put it, you never want to do that.

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A hurricane of activity: 8 things that will happen once the MLB lockout ends