Is slow-moving free agency good for Nats or MLB?

It’s been 29 days since the Nationals last made a major-league transaction. Way back on Dec. 12, they announced the signings of Nick Senzel and Dylan Floro, plus the designating of Jeter Downs for assignment. Since then? Crickets.

This should be cause for alarm. A full month with zero transactions? And it’s not like the roster is already set. This team still lacks a left-handed bat to play either left field, first base or designated hitter, and could probably use players to fill two of those positions. Another starting pitcher remains on the wish list, as well.

So there’s no argument out there that can make the case the Nats are better off having done nothing for 29 days.

The only saving grace? They’re not alone.

It’s been an incredibly slow offseason across the baseball world, aside perhaps from the Dodgers and Braves, who seem to make major news every week. Most everyone else has made only a few moves, electing instead to wait this out and theoretically swoop in at some point to start signing free agents.

The Nationals still need a left-handed outfielder or first baseman? No problem, because Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario, Brandon Belt, David Peralta, Carlos Santana, Jurickson Profar, Joey Votto and others are still unsigned. (By the way, so is Dominic Smith, who was DFA’d two months ago.)

The Nationals still need a veteran starter? No problem, because nearly three dozen free agents remain available.

As long as they have somebody locked up by the time pitchers and catchers report five weeks from now, all will be fine. Nobody will remember when a player signed, only that he signed at all. (Did you remember both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado signed their mega-free agent contracts during spring training of 2019?)

That doesn’t, however, mean the tortoise-slow pace to this Hot Stove League is good for baseball. Other professional sports enjoy a feeding frenzy the moment free agency commences, generating massive interest locally and nationally. Major League Baseball free agency begins five days after the conclusion of the World Series, which nobody realizes because nobody of consequence ever signs until at least December, with many free agents waiting until January or even February.

But who does that benefit? Players want to know where they’re going to be this season, especially those with families who prefer time to make arrangements instead of scrambling to move on their own to a new city at a moment’s notice. General managers and managers want to know what their rosters are going to look like long before everyone reports to spring training. Agents want … well, there’s your answer.

This may unfortunately become the new norm. We saw it heading into the aforementioned 2019 season, when the prize free agents waited until late-February to sign. We saw it heading into the 2022 season, because the league’s lockout of players shut down the industry from December through mid-March. And we’re now seeing it heading into the 2024 season, with the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes slowing everything down and teams now willing to keep waiting it out long past New Year’s Day.

It all makes for a boring, often frustrating, winter for fans, players, executives and, yes, reporters. We can only hope by the time pitchers and catchers report to Florida and Arizona in a mere five weeks, everyone will have signed, and we won’t bother to remember when it finally happened.