The question is why this is happening. Here the story gets a bit muddled. In many ways, owners are right to be cautious about free agent signings. Cafardo points out that major league teams have incorporated the lessons from sabermetrics about the aging curve and are acting accordingly: "What many owners have come to find is the level of production of the younger player is far greater of that of the older players, so those deals for players 30 and older are starting to dry up. The owners will argue that they have finally woken up to that fact. Older players are getting shut out or offered one-year deals." But this fails to explain the subdued interest in Machado and Harper. Both of them are 26, hitting free agency in their prime. They should be signing big honking contracts.