The effect of free agency on player loyalty in major league baseball

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of free agency on player loyalty to team in Major League Baseball during the 24 years since the inception of free agency. The investigator believed that free agency would cause a significant decline in player loyalty. Data for all non-pitchers each season with a minimum of 200 times at bat and data for all pitchers each season with a minimum of 50 innings pitched were analyzed. The official American League and National League rosters, as reported in Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball and The Sportinq News Baseball Reqister, were used in the study. The consecutive number of years played under contract with current team was recorded for each player in each season. This allowed the researcher to calculate an average number of years with current team for both pitchers and non-pitchers in each season from 1973 until 1996. The results were divided into four subsets for analysis: American League Pitchers; National League Pitchers; American League Non-Pitchers; and National League Non-Pitchers. While there was no significant difference in player loyalty within any of the four subsets, the findings clearly indicated that pitchers tend to migrate from team to team more frequently than do non-pitchers in major league baseball.