Jays' Turner: State of free agency is 'black eye' on MLB

Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Justin Turner is concerned about the state of free agency with a significant amount of players and talent still available as spring training begins.

"It's just frustrating," Turner said Monday, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. "It's frustrating, obviously, for the guys in the free-agency class. It's frustrating for a lot of teams around the league trying to figure out where some of these guys are going to go. It's kind of a little bit of a black eye on baseball.

"You have all these guys that are All-Star, Cy Young, batting title, Rookie of the Year guys on the free-agent market, and they're having a hard time finding a job. I don't think it's a good look."

Turner, who signed a one-year, $13-million contract at the beginning of February, would like to see lots of signings in a short period.

"There's not a lot we can do about it," Turner added. "But, certainly from an aspirational perspective, we'd rather have two weeks of flurried activity in December, preferably around the winter meetings where you're all there to write about it and we all get excited about the upcoming year. That'll be a project in the next go-around."

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league proposed a signing deadline in December. However, the MLBPA rejected the idea.

Agent Scott Boras, who represents unsigned stars Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, and J.D. Martinez, vehemently opposed the proposal of a deadline, calling the notion "death lines to the players."