Pujols, Castro, Cueto, Lagares, among free agents who have not gotten a contract

Two weeks before the start of the 2022 season, more than fifty players who worked in the previous season and who have shown no intention of retiring from baseball, are on the Major League unemployed list.

The list includes the illustrious Dominican first baseman and designated hitter Albert Pujols, a future member of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame; to the Venezuelans Wilson RamosPablo Sandoval and Asdrubal Cabreraand the Americans Michael Comfort and Brett Gardneramong other position players.

Also to the experienced pitchers Jake Arrieta, Chris Archer, Johnny Cueto and Dellin Betances.

Since the Atlanta Braves they beat the Houston Astros In last year’s World Series, major league teams spent more than $3.2 billion on free agents, an offseason record, before and after a 99-day lockout that threatened to cut next season short. until a new labor agreement was agreed with the players’ union.

The labor blockade divided the winter market into two halves and cut spring preparation to less than a month, although it did not affect the duration of the regular series, which is now scheduled to start on Thursday, April 7, instead of March 31 original calendar.

The reasons for remaining in free agency vary from case to case. Most of the unemployed are veterans who have seen their conditions decline over time, but some are simply victims of the system.

Pujols, a 10-time All-Star with three NL MVP awards, is by far the most important of baseball’s current jobless. The 42-year-old from Quisqueyano hit .236 with 17 homers and 50 RBIs with Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers last year, in the final season of his $240 million contract.

The possibility that 2021 would be Pujols’s last year as an active player took hold before the season started, due to a publication that his wife Deidre made on social networks. Later, Mrs. Pujols clarified that she was referring to the end of the current contract and the player himself ruled out that he was planning to retire.

“We’re going to wait for that to happen. Why the rush? Right now I feel good and I feel like I can keep playing baseball,” Pujols, who has more than 3,000 hits and 2,000 RBIs but needs 21, said this winter. home runs to reach 700 in his career.

But while Pujols is a 21-year veteran on his way out, Conforto’s case is totally different, though it produces the same result.

Conforto, 29, was one of the most important players in the New York Mets entering the 2021 season. The team tried to lock him in for the long haul with an offer of more than $100 million, which he turned down. Even after a notable drop in his production last year, the Mets offered him the qualifying offer ($18.4 million) for 2022.

Conforto, who earned $12.2 million last year, had a wonderful opportunity to take the hefty 50% raise in salary and play to restore his value and return to the market next winter.

Worse yet, when Conforto turned down the qualifying offer, he added a draft pick to his price, which partly explains why he has no team with two weeks to go before the first official playball of the year.