Baseball, unlike other professional sports, has a major competitive balance issue.
For example, how often do franchises for the NFL, NBA, or NHL get criticized for throwing bags of cash on these players that go to the same teams?
Other than the Los Angeles Rams, who strategically fixed contracts to be below the salary cap, and the Golden State Warriors signing Kevin Durant, you don’t see it very often.
The Green Bay Packers and the Buffalo Bills, for example, are in much smaller markets compared to New York and Los Angeles, yet, are just as or more competitive throughout the NFL’s history.
The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers have taken advantage of the rules, rightfully so, and are always near the top. Meanwhile, teams like the Oakland Athletics or those of similar caliber are unable to resign players they’ve groomed in the minor leagues. Sure, the Moneyball story is great, but how has that small payroll worked in the last few seasons?
MLB made a minimal effort recently to compete with the competitive balance issue they face by adding a draft lottery.
Is this enough? Nope, and I don’t think it’s close.
Take a look at the dollars — according to www.spotrac.com, the Mets are at the top of the payroll rankings, spending $244,733,332 (thank you, Mets super fan, Steve Cohen). The Yankees are over the $200 million dollar mark as well, followed by the Phillies in third, Padres, Dodgers, and Braves over $160 million.
Now, to the bottom payrolls. The A’s opened the piggy bank for a whopping, wait for it, $4 million.
That’s quite the outlier and should go up as the offseason continues, but still, other teams are spending significantly less. The Orioles are 29th at $18 million, and the Pirates, Rays, and Royals are all under $30 million.
In the 2022 offseason, big-time free agents such as Aaron Judge, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Justin Verlander, Edwin Diaz, and Clayton Kershaw all ended up with the top six teams I listed above.
Carlos Correa and Jacob DeGraom ended up with the Giants (14th) and Rangers (8th).
Other free agents in the past in that six-team pool include Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Gerrit Cole, and Max Scherzer — all well over $30 million per year.
So my solution is simply this — a salary cap. Do I know an exact number it should be at or how long it would take for that number to reach a specific amount? No, but an effort to implement one will start to shorten the margin between overspending and underspending.
The NFL is the greatest example of it. If you look over the standings in its history, team records changed within 3-4 years. Teams with the No. 1 pick can turn around fast (take the Bengals, for example, worst to Super Bowl in one year).
Let’s get more competitive baseball in the future, shall we?
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