Major League Baseball don’t need no stinkin’ salary cap. Never has, never will.
In terms of competitive balance, no sport – cap or not – has featured a wider range of title winning teams than MLB.
In the last two decades, 14 different teams have won the World Series, including small market clubs like Kansas City, Miami and Arizona. More importantly, low budget teams like Tampa (who won the American League in 2020), Oakland, Minnesota, Colorado and others have been playoff participants multiple times.
Baseball (which has revenue sharing but no salary cap) has proven that it’s not how much you spend, it’s how you spend it.
Then came COVID-19 to throw a solidly performing industry into the dumpster.
Every MLB franchise lost an estimated $100 million in 2020 through no fault of their own. For the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won their first (one-third) world championship in more than 30 years, it was worth playing one-third of a season just to get that elusive trophy. LA has revenue in excess of $33 million per year from their astonishing 25-year local TV deal (signed in 2013) before they put a single fanny in a seat. So the fact that they couldn’t put any cars in the parking lot or fannies in any seats last season didn’t make that much of a dent.
The same sort of scenario exists for other mega-market teams like the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and others. The New York Mets got a new owner, filthy-rich investor Steve Cohen, who didn’t lose a penny last season. He can afford to sit at the head table and has already made it clear he will spend money like a big market owner. There are several MLB franchises that have been able to absorb the losses of 2020 and keep striving forward toward a title. This season, they will stand out a little bit more.
The majority of big league franchises were hit very hard by losses caused by the pandemic. They’ve been unable to focus on adding to their team and have had to be more focused on financial viability.
The Colorado Rockies dumping (most of) the salary of superstar Nolan Arenado is the most glaring example, but several other teams have been forced to button things up and work on a tighter (read, less expensive) budget. That includes the defending American League champs Tampa Bay and the Chicago Cubs.
With the San Diego Padres as the outlier (not a big market, but a willingness to add a large amount of salary/talent to an already playoff quality roster), the 2021 playoff field in MLB can almost be set right now. In the NL, the Dodgers, Padres, St. Louis Cardinals (who added Arenado), Atlanta Braves (who added Charlie Morton), and New York Mets (who added Francisco Lindor) look to be overwhelming favorites to be in the postseason. They’ve improved their teams, and could continue to do so as others shed payroll. On paper, there’s a considerable gap between those five teams and everybody else. Then again, the games aren’t played on paper, right?
In the American League, it’s not quite as clear cut, but the free spending Yankees appear to be in great shape, as do the big market Toronto Blue Jays (who added George Springer), the big market Chicago White Sox, and the big market Houston Astros. That would leave an outlier in the junior circuit as well. Perhaps the Rays can overcome the loss of their best pitcher, Blake Snell (whom they traded to the Padres in a cost-saving move) and continue their low budget magic? Oakland and Minnesota are in the same boat. We’ll see what they can do.
The rush to condemn a team like Colorado to a 100-loss season overlooks the fact that three of the five teams in their division didn’t get better, either. The Diamondbacks and Giants didn’t do any off season spending. Teams like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati – who lost Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer to the filthy-rich Dodgers – probably got worse. We’ll see. In any case, there will be a lot of mediocrity in MLB this season.
There was a tweet recently complaining more about the Pirates $40 million payroll than the Dodgers $250 million outlay. After what the industry of baseball has been through in the last 12 months, that’s not a fair way to look at it. It’s not the Pirates ownership’s fault that they couldn’t sell any tickets last season, nor is it their fault they reside in the 26th biggest TV market in the country, and not the second (LA). The revenue isn’t there to spend more on salaries. It’s nobody’s fault…it’s just post-COVID reality.
That won’t stop people from using the impact of the pandemic to renew calls for a salary cap (and floor) in Major League Baseball. It will be fascinating to see what team owners have to say on the subject when the collective bargaining issues heat up over the summer. Do the Yankees or Dodgers want a salary cap that will force them to dump some of their best players after this season? Will other owners go to the mat for a cap? Perhaps. Will the Players Union even entertain the notion? Very unlikely.
For this season – and maybe the next – baseball’s “Haves” will rule over the “Have Nots” in much the same way LeBron James has ruled the NBA for the last 15 or so years. After that, when the game’s finances stabilize again – when fans can attend games and spend money at concession stands and team stores – don’t be shocked if baseball’s small market battlers rise back up and make all the salary cap talk moot once again.
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