MLB Buzz Is Paling In Comparison To What The NBA’s Offseason Delivers – Forbes

The NBA Show does not go on hiatus. It seems to constantly be in sweeps week, an ongoing cycle of blockbuster style news and happenings that keeps its fan base glued to their phones and televisions for 12 months a year.

And the payoff is always there. Whether it’s the one you rooted for or not, it’s there. Just like the sun rises and sets, you can count on big NBA news and rumors dominating headlines, Twitter feeds and pundit-led discussions from divey barstools to plush studios. On Day 1 of free agency, the league gave out more than $3 billion in player contracts.

Major League Baseball should be the most envious shade of green about it.

MLB used to have something in the same realm of what we saw Sunday from the NBA, with shows on non-league-affiliated networks completely dedicated to transactional intrigue. The Winter Meetings used to be an annual can’t-miss event because it was just about guaranteed the biggest names on the market would be signed or traded there.

But over the last two offseasons, the Winter Meetings have been a bore. If you missed it, you didn’t miss much. Major news has been absent the last couple tries, making baseball’s offseason as boring to casual fans as games in early June. 

Hopefully the eradication of the waiver trade deadline in August means the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the one that is marketed hard by the league, sees a flurry of moves that can generate the player movement interest the offseason suddenly lacks.

Comparing MLB’s player shuffling season to the NBA’s is not apples to apples. We know this. The NBA is a different game, meaning the fascination is different. 

The stars who have reportedly agreed to deals already – Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, D’Angelo Russell, etc. – and those who eventually will can control the narrative night in and night out during the season. They have the ball in their hands whenever they want. They can score when they feel the need. 

They are constantly visible. And that is a huge deal.

Mike Trout and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Max Scherzer are not. They bat once, maybe twice, every hour, and Scherzer loses control of the narrative the second one of his pitches is put into play. 

NBA Draft picks have immediate impact, or they can in theory. MLB picks might not ever be heard from again, ending their careers without ever having stepped onto a major league field. Few NBA teams start the offseason looking to tank. Too many in MLB have the opposite mindset. And the salary cap and structure situations are vastly different, although one would think this could benefit baseball as much as hurt it.

So the drama built into the NBA vs. the hope for drama that MLB tries to sell every day are inherently different. 

But during its offseason, baseball isn’t helping its cause one bit. Instead of the money flying on Day 1 of free agency, baseball’s market moves like a turtle stuck in molasses. Instead of its biggest stars being involved in rumors for months and agreeing to blockbuster deals the day they can be announced, baseball’s biggest free agents end up without teams when spring training starts, some of them even having to wait until the middle of the season before signing.

Part of it is because casual fans don’t know the players. Casual NBA fans know who Patrick Beverly is and care about where he’ll sign. Casual MLB fans don’t necessarily care where Michael Brantley signed last offseason. 

That is an embedded marking problem that MLB has little interest in addressing.

The problem promises to only get worse for MLB going forward as players aren’t recognizable – sometimes even to fans who pay attention to the league on a daily basis – and free agency stagnates. Until those things change, baseball’s hot stove season will continue to be covered in icicles.

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