No one really asked me, but MLB allegedly polled baseball fans about a salary cap. They were apparently all for it. I’m gonna need to see their voting sample, but in the meantime I’m curious about who on the owners’ side is supporting this. The players, of course, don’t want this. But since it’s the offseason now and we have lots of time to talk about it, I started asking myself which of the owners really wants this and where it’s coming from.
Do you think the Yankees or Dodgers really want a cap,
or even remotely care? Ten years ago, the Yankees made a profit on 400 million dollars. I’m curious where they are now if the pre-covid-bucks-era total was so high. The Dodgers clearly don’t care. I’m not sure the Braves are interested either way. I think the Braves’ mindset on salaries is well known at this point.
Looking near the bottom of the ledger, do the Rays really need a cap and floor? They’re already over there counting cards on a level that I don’t want anything to do with them on transactions. The Brewers pretty well have their core almost locked in. The Athletics of not Oakland or Sacramento or Las Vegas ought to have higher income streams soon. Are we flipping everything upside down for the likes of Angels and Rockies?
Does it even make sense to have a floor? If you’re building the farm successfully your going to have cheap talent for three to five years at least. The salary will stay muted for a while, because of baseball antiquated process of underpaying young players while overpaying the older ones. So do we block prospects so you can pay 25 million a year on an aging second baseman?
Speaking of overpaying some infielders, Mets owner Steve Cohen isn’t hurting. I did see a quote from him, saying that his thoughts are just to do what the other owners want to do and figure out 2028 from there. Which other owners is he talking about?
The only this makes sense is that the owners and Rob Manfred wants to standardize the costs and revenues of MLB ownership. If you are looking to purchase a company, one of the first questions is what will it cost to run and what kind of profits they can bring in. Manfred is in the process of bringing teams’ TV contract into his house. They’ve already lined up ESPN, Netflix, and the other major streaming outlets as partners. The next step is to standardize the costs, which are chiefly labor and stadium construction upkeep. They have been very successful getting local governments to chip on stadiums (stadia?), so check that box. Next would be forcing player salaries into a tight band, so they can know those costs are.
MLB is looking to add two new franchises. Also, some current owners may be looking to cash in on the high valuations. And even if they don’t sell, they may be able to report a higher number to banks and be able to borrow money against the value of the team. I’m not saying they are doing that now, but they do it in a lot of other industries.
Sorry we’re 500 plus words into this and I’ve been asking questions to the universe but not you all. So which owners really want a salary cap? I just know I’d be cooler if they didn’t. Or maybe they don’t really want it and are floating this as leverage to get other things like more playoff games that they barely have to pay the players to get.
