With few free agents who stand out among the rest as must-have acquisitions, the current market belongs to the buyers.
And they want to buy low.
Per a source with direct knowledge of the process, teams are using the three-day legal non-tampering tampering period to evaluate their options at a given position, looking for someone who will take less than other players at the same position will take.
Coupled with the ability of the teams to scare many of the agents into saying nothing, the teams currently are holding all the cards.
Ideally, the agents would be comparing notes, coordinating their efforts to set the market. For now, they’re not. Which means that the teams will end up doing deals that consume minimal cap space.
While that will leave other cap space for other players, it will keep plenty of guys from maxing out their market value.