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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Earth to baseball: The winter meetings are supposed to be fun.

At their best, the meetings are a combination of a spending orgy and swap meet. The 2023 “Shohei Delay” edition, on the other hand, is a colossal bore, a detriment to a sport that should be generating worldwide attention with the shock-and-awe signing of the game’s biggest star. Instead, virtually the entire industry is on hold, waiting for the sphinx-like Ohtani to choose his next team and — be still my beating heart — perhaps even offer public comments for the first time in months.

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The fault goes beyond Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, whose devotion to secrecy extends from refusing to divulge the type of elbow surgery Ohtani underwent to refusing to provide the name of his dog. The bigger problem is the nature of baseball’s offseason, which lacks deadlines, and by extension, urgency.  Players, agents and teams procrastinate to their heart’s delight, even if it means sucking the air out of the massive Gaylord Opryland Hotel at a time when hundreds of media members are gathered to generate publicity for the sport.

Ohtani and Balelo are under no obligation to complete a deal this week and trigger a cascade of signings and trades. But you know what? They should be. The biggest names to change teams at the meetings so far are Alex Verdugo, Jarred Kelenic and Kirby Yates. The only one of those players most casual fans would recognize is Verdugo, who went from the Red Sox to the Yankees on Tuesday night in a rare trade between the rivals.

Free-agent reliever Kirby Yates in agreement with Rangers on one-year contract, pending physical, source tells @TheAthletic.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2023

Fans want moves. Fans follow stars. But the void in significant news is creating inordinate attention on insignificant developments such as the one that occurred earlier Tuesday, when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts actually created a stir by acknowledging Ohtani as the team’s “top priority,” and by revealing that club officials recently met with the Japanese superstar for close to three hours at Dodger Stadium.

Nothing Roberts said appeared to violate the collective-bargaining agreement, which states that teams cannot disclose to the media the substance of contract discussions or comment on the value of an unsigned free agent. Nothing he said should dissuade Ohtani from taking the Dodgers’ $500 million or whatever the number will be, no matter what Balelo told clubs about the importance of remaining discreet.

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Roberts’ mistake, if it even qualifies as that, was talking publicly about Ohtani when other teams clearly are taking great care, to the point of absurdity, to honor the Ohtani camp’s request for secrecy. Even then, who cares? Does anyone seriously think Ohtani will shun the Dodgers because their manager talked about a meeting that anyone with half a brain assumed was happening anyway?

The real issue here is bigger than Roberts and the Dodgers and even Ohtani. The real issue is that Major League Baseball, a league without a salary cap, consistently fails to deliver the frenzied offseasons common to cap-based leagues such as the NFL, NBA and NHL, where teams have only so much to spend and need to act quickly to fill holes.

A cap is not necessary in baseball. Even with chronic disparities in revenue between large-market and small-market clubs, the sport mostly operates just fine without one. But some type of transaction deadline would create the rat-a-tat action fans crave, adding not only entertainment value but also spurring ticket and merchandise sales. And, uh, isn’t one of the goals of the Hot Stove season to drum up business?

Baseball actually provided a glimpse of what could be in the rush that occurred before the owners locked out the players on Dec. 1, 2021. Max Scherzer signed a record contract with the Mets with an average annual value of $43.3 million. Corey Seager and Marcus Semien joined the Rangers for a combined $500 million. Dozens of other free agents changed teams as well before the transaction freeze took effect.

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The league, according to sources briefed on the discussions, proposed in 2019 a deadline on multiyear contracts that would occur each year on the Wednesday of the meetings. The players’ union, after conducting extensive discussions internally and with agents, rejected the idea. The sentiment on the players’ side was near-unanimous. The union consistently opposes any restrictions on the free market. It also fears deadlines might squeeze certain players to accept below-market deals

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The pre-lockout madness in ’21, however, resulted from the equivalent of a deadline. And really, baseball could enact change in any number of ways. One possibility would be a trade deadline at the conclusion of the Winter Meetings. Another would be a Dec. 15 deadline for all transactions, with business resuming Feb. 1. A third would be to extend the deadline on qualifying offers, giving players until the end of the Winter Meetings to either sign with a new team or accept the QO.

The tension created by signing deadlines could work in the players’ favor, causing teams to panic and bestow larger contracts. It also could produce a trickle-down effect for lesser free agents. Again, the experience from ’21 should be instructive. And if a restructured offseason generated greater interest in the game, hello? All parties would benefit.

As for Ohtani, the secrecy of his free agency does not exactly come as a surprise. This is the way he prefers it, going back to his days in Japan. This also is the way Balelo prefers to operate, as a way of maintaining control. Agents never want media coverage of the process to affect the outcome of the process. Balelo is not the only agent who operates in that fashion. Perhaps at the instruction of his client, he is just taking it to a greater extreme.

We get it. Ohtani is a unique player with a unique personality. But just as the league enacted on-field rules changes to add to the sport’s entertainment value, the “Shohei Delay” demonstrates the need to adopt measures to make the offseason more compelling.

These Winter Meetings aren’t fun. Earth to baseball: Figure out a better way.

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(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani, whose free agency has stalled the entire baseball industry: Kyodo via Associated Press)

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