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Veteran OF Denard Span Reveals He Retired After Embarrassing Contract Offers

By Steven Kubitza

Veteran MLB OF Denard Span has retired after receiving low contract offers.
Veteran MLB OF Denard Span has retired after receiving low contract offers. / Abbie Parr/Getty Images

The free agent market in Major League Baseball has taken a clear turn in recent years. Top players are still receiving record deals, but more average talents may go well into March or April before receiving a respectable offer. Just consider the fact that Yasiel Puig is still without a contract at this point in time.

Veteran outfielder Denard Span, who last appeared with the Seattle Mariners in 2018, officially announced his retirement this week after not securing a deal since being released following that season. He cited embarrassingly low offers as his reasoning for stepping away from the game after an 11-year career that also included stints with the Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays.

Span said he received a league minimum offer and decided that was enough. The league minimum is $563,500. This is clearly less than ideal for a veteran player who compiled a 28.1 WAR over the course of 11 seasons.

The veteran made it clear he wasn't looking for a monster deal. He just wanted to be paid his worth and the league minimum is not valuable enough to him after a 1.0 WAR season in 2018. It is hard to blame him and more players following Span's lead could maybe force MLB front offices to not be as cheap as they have come to be.