If Manfred comes down hard on the Sox for doing what Kinsler described, he will be setting a disastrous precedent. Because you can almost bet every team was doing that much.
Kinsler also says players who were reviewing at their at-bats on video would also be looking at signs and trying to decode them - making it sound as if this was just normal procedure that everyone was doing.
So maybe Manfred is going to have to decide if it's cheating when everyone is doing it.
Those $ values do have some meaning, because they're based on the real average cost of a win on the free agent market. They do get inflated by all the free agent busts, of course.
The only question is whether there's some place he really wants to play.
With some players that doesn't seem to matter at all, of course.
I can't believe the #1 destinations for Harper & Machado were Philly and San Diego (yes I know SD is a nice place to live).
Teams don't typically win bidding wars by going $1 higher, of course.
If the reports are accurate, the Yankees secured Cole by offering a 9th year at $36 million, whereas the Dodgers and Angels each called it quits at 8 years at the same rate.