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Every offseason there are winners and “losers” in the Free Agent market place. Players shuffle around the league chasing the best contract their agents can find and fans watch their favorites change uniforms like a woman changes shoes. Players in their primes wait six long years for the opportunity to hit the open market for their chance to cash in.
For most the hardest decision that has to be made is: Do I take $X from team A or $Y from team B? Either way that player has a chance to be set for life financially. For some the phone calls and offers take a bit longer to come. For others those calls never come.
There’s always a pecking order in life and free agency is no different. Teams wait until the biggest names are locked up before moving on to the next tier of players. In recent years that has often meant waiting until Spring Training before many FAs find their new homes.
This year two former Freedom players find themselves at home during a time of year when they are accustomed to plane rides and clubhouse meals. Thirty-six year olds Jerry Fortin (C) and Desi Rochs (IF) are experiencing something they did not expect this winter. Unemployment.
“Going into the offseason my agent and I decided to test the market,” said Fortin, who declined a player option for $8.5mil with the Freedom with hopes of almost doubling that salary in free agency. “We really thought with the lack of catching depth that was available in free agency that I would be able to increase my salary over that guaranteed $8.5mil. Hell, we thought there was a chance Philly would still sign me. As the winter ended and spring training began the phone stopped ringing. When Elliot signed with Davenport the calls ended altogether.”
During his exclusive negotiating period after ’87 Fortin asked the Freedom for a 2 year deal worth almost $17mil per season after declining his player option. Freedom GM Brad Zabel said this when contacted about Fortin, “We loved the guy here. He was great in the room and a leader on the field. We were really a bit surprised when he declined the option. I knew from having talks with him early last year that he felt he still had 3 good years left in him and that he wanted a 2 year extension after the season and it’s possible we could have worked something out if he had exercised the $8.5mil option, but the dollars his agent was throwing around were just not doable here in Philly.”
Zabel continued, “Did he misread the market? I’m not sure if they misread it, but free agency is a very fluid situation. You can think you have a deal in place one minute and the next the other party may just stop taking your calls. Nothing personal, just business.”
Fortin is particularly dismayed now that April is here. “Opening Day,” said Fortin, staring out the window with a distant look in his eye. “ I’ve taken part in every one since the BLB got back together. I never thought when I declined that option that I would still be sitting here this time of year, waiting. I know how this works. I’m 36 and I can’t afford to sit out a season, physically. If I don’t hook on with a team soon, that’s probably it for me.”
Rochs sings a similar tune, “Philly came to me during the ’87 season with a two year extension. I won’t talk numbers, but I felt I could do better in free agency. I thought we could get them to up their own bid. At my age I didn’t really want to go anywhere, get adjusted to a new city, teammates, all that. I just wanted a fair contract.”
Now it appears that contract offer may have been a fair contract.
“Your agent is talking in one ear, your wife is talking in the other, you just feel like you’re supposed to try to get every last cent you can,” said Rochs. “I guess I kind of lost sight of what I wanted. I would love to still be there. We were a playoff team last year and I would have liked another shot in the Freedom uni.”
Some insiders suggest the flurry of offseason moves by the Freedom were brought about by the decisions made by these two vets.
When asked directly if Mel Woodbury would have been dealt to Virginia this offseason if Fortin and Rochs were still on the roster, GM Zabel deflected by saying, “It’s not really possible to answer that. How connected are all those decisions? Every decision a GM makes is related to other decisions going on around them, but to say that one decision leads directly to another outcome in this game can’t really be supported.”
Both Fortin and Rochs insist that they still think they will catch on with a club for this season and at least squeeze out one more year. Fortin and Rochs both continue to take part in their individual offseason conditioning programs, but Fortin was still a bit disappointed by missing Spring Training.
“At my age you love and hate Spring Training at the same time,” said Fortin. “All those repetitive drills, over and over. But there’s value to that, you know? I can work out all I want, by myself, to try to stay in shape, but I can’t help but feel at this point that even if a team does call, it would be May before I was actually in baseball shape.”
Rochs echoed those thoughts when approached for this story.
“Yeah, it will be tough when the call does come,” said Rochs. “I try to stay in shape during the offseason, but I usually kick off a lot of rust during Spring Training. If I get the call at this point, my new team would need to know that I’ll be trying to play my way into baseball shape for the first 2-3 weeks.”
An aging ballplayer is typically a retrospective ballplayer, wondering if the end of their careers would have played out differently if they had made different decisions. The end comes for all, only some players are fortunate enough to make that decision on their own timeline, while others have that decision made for them. It remains to be seen if these two vets will get that chance to make the decision on their own terms.
Every offseason there are winners and “losers” in the Free Agent market place. Players shuffle around the league chasing the best contract their agents can find and fans watch their favorites change uniforms like a woman changes shoes. Players in their primes wait six long years for the opportunity to hit the open market for their chance to cash in.
For most the hardest decision that has to be made is: Do I take $X from team A or $Y from team B? Either way that player has a chance to be set for life financially. For some the phone calls and offers take a bit longer to come. For others those calls never come.
There’s always a pecking order in life and free agency is no different. Teams wait until the biggest names are locked up before moving on to the next tier of players. In recent years that has often meant waiting until Spring Training before many FAs find their new homes.
This year two former Freedom players find themselves at home during a time of year when they are accustomed to plane rides and clubhouse meals. Thirty-six year olds Jerry Fortin (C) and Desi Rochs (IF) are experiencing something they did not expect this winter. Unemployment.
“Going into the offseason my agent and I decided to test the market,” said Fortin, who declined a player option for $8.5mil with the Freedom with hopes of almost doubling that salary in free agency. “We really thought with the lack of catching depth that was available in free agency that I would be able to increase my salary over that guaranteed $8.5mil. Hell, we thought there was a chance Philly would still sign me. As the winter ended and spring training began the phone stopped ringing. When Elliot signed with Davenport the calls ended altogether.”
During his exclusive negotiating period after ’87 Fortin asked the Freedom for a 2 year deal worth almost $17mil per season after declining his player option. Freedom GM Brad Zabel said this when contacted about Fortin, “We loved the guy here. He was great in the room and a leader on the field. We were really a bit surprised when he declined the option. I knew from having talks with him early last year that he felt he still had 3 good years left in him and that he wanted a 2 year extension after the season and it’s possible we could have worked something out if he had exercised the $8.5mil option, but the dollars his agent was throwing around were just not doable here in Philly.”
Zabel continued, “Did he misread the market? I’m not sure if they misread it, but free agency is a very fluid situation. You can think you have a deal in place one minute and the next the other party may just stop taking your calls. Nothing personal, just business.”
Fortin is particularly dismayed now that April is here. “Opening Day,” said Fortin, staring out the window with a distant look in his eye. “ I’ve taken part in every one since the BLB got back together. I never thought when I declined that option that I would still be sitting here this time of year, waiting. I know how this works. I’m 36 and I can’t afford to sit out a season, physically. If I don’t hook on with a team soon, that’s probably it for me.”
Rochs sings a similar tune, “Philly came to me during the ’87 season with a two year extension. I won’t talk numbers, but I felt I could do better in free agency. I thought we could get them to up their own bid. At my age I didn’t really want to go anywhere, get adjusted to a new city, teammates, all that. I just wanted a fair contract.”
Now it appears that contract offer may have been a fair contract.
“Your agent is talking in one ear, your wife is talking in the other, you just feel like you’re supposed to try to get every last cent you can,” said Rochs. “I guess I kind of lost sight of what I wanted. I would love to still be there. We were a playoff team last year and I would have liked another shot in the Freedom uni.”
Some insiders suggest the flurry of offseason moves by the Freedom were brought about by the decisions made by these two vets.
When asked directly if Mel Woodbury would have been dealt to Virginia this offseason if Fortin and Rochs were still on the roster, GM Zabel deflected by saying, “It’s not really possible to answer that. How connected are all those decisions? Every decision a GM makes is related to other decisions going on around them, but to say that one decision leads directly to another outcome in this game can’t really be supported.”
Both Fortin and Rochs insist that they still think they will catch on with a club for this season and at least squeeze out one more year. Fortin and Rochs both continue to take part in their individual offseason conditioning programs, but Fortin was still a bit disappointed by missing Spring Training.
“At my age you love and hate Spring Training at the same time,” said Fortin. “All those repetitive drills, over and over. But there’s value to that, you know? I can work out all I want, by myself, to try to stay in shape, but I can’t help but feel at this point that even if a team does call, it would be May before I was actually in baseball shape.”
Rochs echoed those thoughts when approached for this story.
“Yeah, it will be tough when the call does come,” said Rochs. “I try to stay in shape during the offseason, but I usually kick off a lot of rust during Spring Training. If I get the call at this point, my new team would need to know that I’ll be trying to play my way into baseball shape for the first 2-3 weeks.”
An aging ballplayer is typically a retrospective ballplayer, wondering if the end of their careers would have played out differently if they had made different decisions. The end comes for all, only some players are fortunate enough to make that decision on their own timeline, while others have that decision made for them. It remains to be seen if these two vets will get that chance to make the decision on their own terms.
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