MLB's desire to limit contract lengths would benefit the Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox have allowed some of their best homegrown talents to slip away in recent years due to ownership's reluctance to pay a fortune to star players on massive long-term deals that extend until the end of their careers. That concern might be alleviated if the MLB owners get their way.

According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription required), MLB owners want to limit the length of major league player contracts.

“A reform that has been of interest to ownership for a number of years is a limitation of contract length,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. “Obviously players love it, it gives them financial security for a very long period of time. The difficulty — and I think players will come to appreciate this as time goes by — those contracts result in a transfer from the current stars to yesterday’s stars. At some point, that has to be true. And I think it is an issue that is important for us to stay focused on, because it creates inflexibility that affects the quality of the teams that you put on the field.”

This change clearly isn't imminent since the Major League Baseball Players Association will fight anything that caps a player's potential earnings. Tony Clark, the executive director of the MLBPA, called it an "assault" on guaranteed contracts. We don't know what those limitations would be if they were ever implemented but we don't need to dig deep to see how this change could benefit the Red Sox.