It took a LONG TIME for Manny Machado, one of the best players in baseball, to sign a contract (which he finally did with the San Diego Padres).  Bryce Harper remains unsigned to this point and the fact that it's taken this long has many ripping Major League Baseball.

The latest to do so, last year's crown jewel of the free agent class, J.D. Martinez.  If you remember correctly, it took until late February for Martinez to sign with the Red Sox last year and in a recent interview with WEEI's Rob Bradford, he sounded off on what's happening in baseball right now:

"One-hundred-percent," Martinez told WEEI.com when asked if he had an idea there would be a second straight offseason where free agents were being drastically more undervalued than in years' past. "I knew it was. Why wouldn't it? They got away with it last year, why wouldn't they do it again? What's going to happen? Nothing. It's embarrassing for baseball, it really is. It's really embarrassing for the game. You have a business. They say, 'The market is down, the market is changing.' The market is higher than it's ever been. People are making more money than ever, and they're trying to suppress it. It's more of a race towards the bottom now than a race towards the top. You can go right now through everyone's lineup and you already know who's going to be in the playoffs. What's the fun in that? We might as well just fast-forward to the end of the season."

"Losing is incentivized now. You have 80 percent of the teams trying to lose. We were at a point where we were getting paid well and everything was fair. We saw where the product was going, everything was moving forward. Then we're like, 'OK, we're not going to push the envelope fighting for money. Let's fight for an extra bus.' Again, I was a lot younger than I am now. I wasn't aware of those things. When you get older, you go through arbitration, you start seeing it affect you directly, and you get a lot more involved. This has definitely been eye-opening to everyone. Not just myself, but all of the players. There obviously have to be some changes.

Based on what's happened this offseason to two of the best players in baseball, it's hard to argue with Martinez.

The quote about changes needing to be made should scare fans, too, because a lockout could be on the horizon in 2021.

(H/T: FTW)