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Former MLB general manager and professional interference runner for the league’s owners Jim Bowden had an article published at The Athletic on Thursday, decrying the rise of player opt-outs in extensions and free agent contracts. It’s a lengthy one, and while it does take opposing viewpoints into account to a degree — for example, there’s an executive in there saying if an opt-out is what it takes to sign a player, then the player will get an opt-out as the cost of doing business — it can essentially be boiled down to “players having options is bad.”
From Bowden: