Overnight a trade that would have sent Jonathan Lucroy to the Indians and made them a very strong contender for the World Series was vetoed. Not by a general manager, team owner or even a manager. It was vetoes by the main player in the deal, Lucroy himself.
Jonathan Lucroy is a veteran player who has built in to his contract a no-trade clause which allowed him to veto the trade. That clause precludes the Brewers from trading Lucroy to eight teams, Indians were one of those teams, without his consent. When the deal was originally announced it seemed that it was a done deal and that all he wanted was some extra cash to approve the trade. Since then it has come out that he wanted to be assured he would be their starting catcher next year, or at least that is what is being reported. Who knows if that is the reason he vetoes the trade or not that is not what this is about. What it is really about is the fact that in MLB contracts players are given the rights to control their future destiny by blocking trades. In an age where NFL players have no control over their futures and very little guaranteed money compared to their baseball counterparts it has to be said that baseball players have a huge leg up over football players.
How were MLB players able to get this and NFL players not able to, by hard nose negotiating. Baseball players were able to get their way on this issue and it will never go away. NFL players have to with they had that same power, but unfortunately I doubt they will ever have these rights.