Quote:
Originally Posted by Ocotillo
The competitive balance tax is already working as a de facto salary tax. Only the Dodgers and Padres surpassed the luxury tax threshold in 2021 and the Padres were barely over. The Padres were always the poster child for small market teams.
Five teams -- Phillies, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Astros -- were within $5 million or less of the luxury tax threshold so obviously the penalties are stopping them from spending more. It's only one franchise running roughshod over the luxury tax threshold.
The Dodgers just lost homegrown star Corey Seager to the Rangers and because they're so high above the competitive balance tax, they are only being compensated a fourth round pick for him. It's not just the small market teams losing their stars. The Cubs and Nationals recently lost a bunch of homegrown stars and they're both $200 million payroll type teams. The Red Sox lost Mookie Betts and could very well lose Xander Bogaerts after 2022.
The players already dropped their request for five-year free agency. The reason why is because they knew the owners would have shut down the season over that issue.
You're contradicting yourself here. You make it sound like you want a floor but you accuse the players of shaming the greedy, small market owners into spending more. Personally, I think a team like the Orioles shouldn't throw money at a second-tier free agent. They should save their dollars to invest in Adley Ruschmann and Grayson Rodriguez long term. But if they have some agent like Scott Boras, it's not happening. I totally feel the pain of a small-market fan being a small-market fan myself who has been through too many fire sales.
The floor proposal wasn't taken seriously by the MLBPA because the luxury tax threshold was going to come down to $180 million.
I don't understand why you blame the players when the owners locked them out in the first place. The owners did this to themselves if you think back to the winters of 2018/19 and 2019/20. Ice frozen free agent markets with snail pace movement. They had this war coming to them.
But I will say this, I feel like the MLBPA has bent over backwards to cater to the needs of Scott Boras and the top 5% player when they're doing just fine even in the status quo CBA that the owners love. Juan Soto is going to get his $450 million.
The MLBPA should be fighting for the player that gets paid $10K a year in the minors, makes the majors for three years and then gets tossed to the side for a replacement minimum salary rookie.
I totally feel you though. Both parties should be growing the game, enhancing the product instead of engaging in the war that nobody cares about. There's a lot of diehards, not casual fans, turned off by this and are ready to jump ship.
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Yeah, I think a lot of the competitive balance stuff is overblown. One of the unique things about baseball is that teams get punished for bad long term deals by getting saddled with the contract. Like Bobby Bonilla, but usually it’s more like pujols (paying a guy way too much at the end of his career) or jacoby elsbury (paying a ton for a guy who doesn’t even play). It’s not like the 2000s when the Yankees and Red Sox were unstoppable. Frankly, the nfl and nba have a way bigger parity issue with dynasties dominating for decades. The variety of World Series teams and winners has been very good.
The bigger problem is a salary floor. The reason I’m more sympathetic with players is that owners should want a team because they’re hungry to win. Not an investment opportunity, and not winning just enough to make money. Keeping owners accountable for not spending enough is the bigger deal to me. People hated George Steinbrenner but the dude flat out wanted to win and spared no expense to do it.
The game is more competitive balanced than people give it credit for. The bigger crime is when dipshits like Manfred mess with the game to juice up ratings. Like juicing the ball a few years ago. And this season messing up pitchers arms because they stupidly decided to change the rules mid year about doctoring baseballs. Or selig and the steroid era. More offense tends to favor high payroll teams because a few great hitters can make up for mediocre pitching. Without offense, teams are rewarded for depth and bullpens and coaching, which tends to favor well run teams.