Greg Holland was cut from $14 million to $2 million this season. Daniel Murphy fell from $17.5 million to $10 million.While Manny Machado agreed to a pending $300 million Jack Morris Jersey , 10-year contract with San Diego and Bryce Harper is likely to top Giancarlo Stanton’s record $325 million, 13-year deal, many less-than-superstar veterans have been routed on the free-agent market.Players want change, and management could be open to negotiations for alterations to the collective bargaining agreement as part of an extension of the current deal, set to expire in December 2021.“It’s really clear there’s been a redistribution of how clubs are looking at veteran players,” agent Scott Boras said Wednesday. “We have a clear problem in the industry of a non-competitive cancer. Like any patient with a malady, we have to address it immediately. Otherwise it is going to get steadily worse.”Of the 111 announced agreements among the 164 players who exercised their free-agency rights after the World Series, 36 were for minor league contracts and 26 were one-year deals for less than last year’s average salary of just over $4 million.In all, 46 players got one-year contracts, 19 two-year deals and seven three-year agreements. Just three longer contracts for free agents have been announced: left-hander Patrick Corbin’s $140 million, six-year deal with Washington, outfielder A.J. Pollock’s $60 million, five-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and pitcher Nathan Eovaldi’s $68 million, four-year package with Boston.Clubs are replacing veterans with younger players earning at or near the $555,000 minimum who lack the roughly 2 2/3 years of major league service needed to be eligible for salary arbitration. In the age of analytics, cheaper may not be better, but often it’s not much worse.“All veteran players of a certain age are being affected by this analysis, which is not just widespread but fairly consistent across most clubs,” said former New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, now an Oakland Athletics senior adviser. “The math is the math.”Spending on big league payrolls dropped last season for the first time since 2010, an $18 million fall to $4.23 billion http://www.bluejaysfanproshop.com/authe … iaz-jersey , according to figures compiled by the commissioner’s office and obtained by The Associated Press. While the decrease was attributable to drug and domestic violence suspensions and a player retiring at midseason, payrolls were otherwise flat, unusual for a sport with rising revenue.Team behavior changed following a new collective bargaining agreement, which imposed a higher luxury tax on big spenders. The New York Yankees dropped under the tax threshold last year for the first time since 2003 and the Dodgers for the first time since 2012. Neither showed great interest in Harper or Machado.“Isn’t it odd that all 30 teams have gone younger and cheaper rather than older and better?” agent Jay Reisinger said. “It’s more than a coincidence that guys remain unsigned. Clubs are treating the tax threshold as a salary cap. If you look at the salary-cap sports, it is most often the middle-class that gets squished.”In addition to Harper, Craig Kimbrel, Dallas Keuchel, Marwin Gonzalez, Carlos Gonzalez and Gio Gonzalez were still on the market on the eve of the exhibition opener scheduled for Thursday.And many of those who have signed got deals for a fraction of their initial hopes. Mike Moustakas turned down a $17.4 million qualifying offer from Kansas City after the 2017 season and returned to the Royals in mid-March for a one-year contract that included a guaranteed $6.5 million. He was traded to Milwaukee during the summer, earned $2.2 million in bonuses and became a free agent again. He stayed with the Brewers for a one-year deal guaranteeing $10 million — raising his two-year total to just $1.3 million more than the one-year contract he turned down 15 months ago.“It was nice to see Manny come off the board yesterday, but ultimately it’s a lot more than one player,” said reliever Andrew Miller, who left Cleveland for a $25 million, two-year contract with St. Louis. “Even the guys that are getting deals that they’re happy with, the timing of it is unique compared to what we saw in the past. It used to be a couple guys maybe played the long game. Now it seems like a lot of guys have no choice. The stories that we hear when guys show up to camp is that they had no offers.”Players are ready to go to war over WAR. Teams compare the Wins Above Replacement of veterans against rookies. In addition, data shows older players spent more time on the disabled list.The system since 1976 has been based on seniority. Clubs control the salaries of young players, those with roughly three-to-six years of service are eligible for arbitration and those with more than six are free. For decades, many players in the second half of their careers had deals that reflected earlier production more than their current output.“There has been an explosion in data, and when you have more data you have fewer gaps that require some intuitive or subjective assessment,” Alderson said. “The second aspect of this is people running clubs are all exposed to the same data, and the data is only minimally subject to interpretation.”Data also is causing teams to shed veterans during the offseason in favor of rebuilding. The cost of amateurs residing in the U.S. http://www.bluejaysfanproshop.com/authe … oup-jersey , Puerto Rico and Canada was capped in the labor contract that started ahead of the 2012 season and the price of international amateurs was capped before the 2017 season.Boras, whose top free-agent clients include Harper and Keuchel, suggests adding wild-card teams, so more teams try to compete later into the season.“There is a clear evidence of tanking in our industry,” he said. “Clubs are choosing to lose and tank and the decrease in competition for the better teams does not require them to be as good. So they have less incentive to build the depth of their roster.”Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred maintains all teams are trying to win, though some have a longer-term vision of success. Boras says stripped-down rosters have been the cause of three straight years of attendance drops — to under a 30,000 average for the first time since 2003.“I’m not saying that every team has to serve steak, but I’ll tell you what, fans of this game love to go to the ballpark and have a good hamburger,” Boras said. “And that means that they know their team can beat another team every time. But when you walk in there and you’re serving essentially stale, less-than-quality meat, fans aren’t going to come, and the evidence has shown they won’t.” NEW YORK — On Friday night, Aaron Nola moved into a tie for the National League lead by earning his 16th victory.On Saturday night, Max Scherzer not only broke that tie, he notched his 17th win by becoming the second pitcher in the NL to throw a second complete game this season.Your move, Jacob deGrom.Article continues below ...The ace of the New York Mets will look to keep pace with his competition for the NL Cy Young Award on Sunday afternoon, when deGrom takes the mound in the finale of a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field.DeGrom (8-8, 1.68 ERA) is scheduled to oppose the Phillies’ Vince Velasquez (9-10, 4.10) in a battle of right-handers.The Mets evened the series Saturday night, when Todd Frazier hit a three-run homer and finished with four RBIs in a 10-5 victory. Noah Syndergaard earned the win by allowing four runs over a 6 2/3-inning stint that ended when he was hit in the right rib cage by a comebacker off the bat of Cesar Hernandez. X-rays were negative and Syndergaard expects to make his next start as scheduled.The last two days have tightened a Cy Young Award race that has appeared to be tilting in deGrom’s direction over the last couple weeks. Nola’s win Friday snapped a two-start hiccup in which he went 0-1 while allowing seven runs over 12 2/3 innings. Scherzer’s victory ended a three-start winless streak in which he posted a 3.79 ERA.DeGrom Matt Adams Jersey , meanwhile, has been doing all he can to take wins out of the equation. He once again didn’t earn a win for his efforts Monday, when he didn’t factor into the decision despite allowing one run on two hits over six innings in the Mets’ 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.It was the 25th straight start in which deGrom gave up three runs or fewer, which broke the modern record set by Dwight Gooden when he won the Cy Young Award for the Mets in 1985 and tied the major league record set by Leonard Cole of the Chicago Cubs in 1910. It was also his 20th straight quality start, breaking the team record set by Tom Seaver in 1973.In addition, it was the 12th time this season deGrom has not earned a win despite pitching at least six innings and giving up two runs or fewer. Mets manager Mickey Callaway has been hoping for weeks deGrom’s tiny ERA — he is more than half a run better than Nola (2.29) and Scherzer (2.33) — will outweigh the lack of wins. No starting pitcher has ever won the Cy Young with fewer than 13 wins.“He’s been the best pitcher in all of baseball,” Callaway told reporters Monday night. “It’s grit and determination. He just won’t be beaten.”The Phillies (74-67) have not been quite as formidable over the past month. If Philadelphia can’t figure out a way to beat deGrom and the Mets (64-77) on Sunday, it will mark the 10th straight series in which Phillies have not earned a series victory.The Phillies are 11-19 since a four-game sweep of the Miami Marlins from Aug. 2-5. Despite the slide, Philadelphia is only 3 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.Runs have been at a premium during the skid for the Phillies, who are averaging 3.7 runs per game over the last 30 contests. In hopes of reviving the offense, manager Gabe Kapler unveiled an unorthodox lineup Saturday, when usual first baseman Carlos Santana played third base and range-challenged Asdrubal Cabrera started at shortstop.After the Phillies scored five runs Saturday, Kapler said he might be willing to sacrifice defense again Sunday.“Going up against a pitcher like Syndergaard, going up (Sunday) against a pitcher like deGrom, you have to find a way to score runs,” Kapler said. “Sometimes that means making that tradeoff, putting your best offensive team on the field. We’ll think about doing it again tomorrow.”Velasquez took the loss in his most recent start Monday, when he allowed three runs over five innings as the Phillies fell to the Marlins 3-1.DeGrom is 7-1 with a 2.20 ERA in 14 career starts against the Phillies. Velasquez is 1-3 with a 3.78 ERA in seven career starts against the Mets.