The Decision: Role player making mockery of MLB free agency with LeBron-style deliberation

In the 2010 offseason, LeBron James decided to let the world know who he was going to sign with in NBA Free Agency on TV on an ESPN segment titled The Decision. Whether you think James was in the right to make such a spectacle of his free agency is up to you, but that obviously got millions of eyeballs glued to the television as fan bases for several teams crossed their fingers in hopes that LeBron would come to their city.

LeBron famously chose to take his talents to South Beach and team up with fellow stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and wound up leading Miami to two NBA Championships and four NBA Finals appearances as the clear-cut best player on the team, and perhaps in the NBA.

The NBA offseason is one that always draws many eyeballs because of how quickly it moves. Players sign immediately most of the time, with James in 2010 being a rare exception. In contrast, the MLB offseason has been an absolute drag. Several key players including the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and former NL MVP Cody Bellinger remain available after Spring Training games have already begun.

Not only are stars available, but role players are taking their sweet time to make a decision too. Enrique Hernandez might be the most popular role player left, and he's looking to take his time in a LeBron-like fashion before making his decision.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported that Hernandez is down to four teams while MLB.com's Mark Feinsand said Hernandez is expected to make his decision by Sunday or Monday. Really? This is what this offseason has come to?

Enrique Hernandez makes mockery of MLB offseason by treating his decision as if he's LeBron

While we wait for even one of the stars to finally make a decision after months of waiting, we have a fine bench player giving a deadline for when he's going to sign. There's nothing for these poor MLB Insiders to report so they have to tweet things like this knowing that the replies will just be full of fans making fun of the player.

The four teams who are in the running for Hernandez according to Rosenthal are the Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles Angels. Hernandez makes sense for all four of these teams as a right-handed hitter who hits lefties well and can play just about everywhere on the diamond, but this is not the kind of player who needs this kind of press.

Nobody outside of those four fan bases cares much at all where Hernandez is going to sign. That's no disrespect to Hernandez who when healthy is a solid player, but he's not Bellinger, Snell, Jordan Montgomery, or even Matt Chapman.

We've reached a point in the offseason where the Carolina Disco Turkeys, an independent league team, is throwing their hat in the ring in the Hernandez sweepstakes.

Hopefully by the time Hernandez makes his long-awaited decision, one other player signs. Don't hold your breath, though.