Wow! I can’t believe that my last post was way back on July 20th!
Part of that failure to post stems from the notion that if you have nothing to say, then you shouldn’t speak. Or write in this case. Actually, getting old has been a big topic in my circles of friends lately, but that topic gets old.
Part of not posting for so long IS related to getting older, because getting older has completely affected my relationship with Time. It just goes by too fast, (which, by the way, is a much more comforting explanation than the notion that I am now processing it too slowly.)
Did that thing happen yesterday? Last week? Last year?
It’s September? What happened to August?
Part of not posting for so long is also because I have been working on a lengthy short story titled, “The Men Who Saved Baseball.” This is a tale set in the future, when one man from Iowa comes into a fortune large enough to begin his own professional baseball league. By involving the right people and signing the right players, and with a little luck and fortunate timing, the All-American League becomes a giant success, a success made possible by Major League Baseball continuing to shoot itself in the foot.
To that end, I have some advice for MLB, not that they’re going to listen. Here’s my tip, Commissioner Rob Manfred on how to stop shooting yourself in the foot, assuming that you have any toes left: You have too many weak franchises; it’s time to implement a salary floor.
Establish a policy that every Major League baseball team must spend a minimum on player salaries. Make sure that every franchise maintains a minimum standard of quality. You know, like the McDonald’s franchises do.
That salary floor should be set at $100 million. According to a 2022 article in Baseball Prospectus (cited here in a Los Angeles Dodger blog) the most recent national television deal results in $60 million going to each team. Couple that with local TV deals worth at least $40 million and there’s your floor. That means, MLB owners that your profit will come from how many tickets, hot dogs, and parking spaces you sell. You’ll become like a regular business, the kind that needs to please its customers in order to make money.
According to USA Today, eight teams are currently under that proposed floor: Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Miami, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and Tampa Bay. That’s 25% of all major league teams, and payrolls range from Oakland’s $56,895,000 to Kansas City’s $92,468,100. (The Nationals rank ninth, by the way with player salaries totaling $101,190,153.) The Orioles are 29th in player salaries with a total of $60,722,300, but keep in mind, Chris Davis, who was injured and no longer playing—is still collecting a paycheck on a long-term contract. In fact, Davis receives $9.16 million for the next three years, which is 15% of Baltimore’s total payroll. (Click here for the entire list of team salaries.)
A salary floor would not just force these small market teams to hire better employees as it were, it also means that the big money franchises would have less talent on which to lavish their money.
Of course, there are details to work out and nuances to be un-nuanced with this idea, but the basic principle can’t be denied. Major League Baseball, as a corporate entity, should hold its franchisees to a minimum standard. That would produce a more satisfying customer experience, attracting more fans, which increases profit.
Unless of course, the goal for the owners and their lawyers and henchmen (is that redundant?) is to milk this cow for all its worth and then get out of the dairy business, hanging us fans and the cow out to dry. I wonder anymore.
Austin Gisriel 
I feel your pain, brother!
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I think you mean aches and pain, lol.
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100%. I am for a hard cap AND a floor. less deferred money, backloaded contracts….. and anything to prevent the selloffs like the one the Mets did.
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Something needs to be done for sure. Just hope the Birds win the East because the endless playoffs, which I can never find on TV, mean nothing to me anymore.
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Might work, Austin, but something would still have to be done about the rich, big market teams just upping their payrolls. The payroll tax obviously hasn’t stopped the Dodgers or Yankees etc. paying more for average players and outbidding for superstars such as Shohei Ohtani, who would make most teams exceed the tax all by himself. I don’t see forcing a minimum payroll having any effect on leveling the on-field quality since the same bottom teams would still be bidding for the same pool of average players that they already have on roster.
On related note, your Orioles are doing just fine this year even with basement payroll. This an outlier year or birth of another dynasty?
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The Orioles have been building to this, so no one around here is really surprised with the results. Their player development has gone from terrible to first class under Mike Elias & Co. One reason that Jackson Holliday isn’t in the majors is no place to play him just yet. What, are they going to bench Gunnar Henderson?!
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Being a fierce believe in free market principles, I always need to think through proposals like yours. My inclination is to say that each team is a market entity and should be free to pay players whatever they want to pay. And caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. But, that isn’t sound analysis because the product is provided by MLB, not the Baltimore Orioles (for example). So, to use your analogy, MLB is McDonalds and each team is a franchisee. So, MLB should insure that the product each team puts out is up to some standard of quality AND that there is some competitive balance. I suppose that also supplies the rationale for some sort of cap or tax on salaries to prevent some teams from providing filet mignon while others provide only the basic quarter pounder.
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Exactly, Hunter. I’m a big believer in the free market as well, but MLB is pretending that there are 32 different fast food joints, when there is really only 1 in 32 different locations. As we have all experienced, some McDonald’s are better than others, and certainly some franchisees have better locations than others, but there is a standard of quality. MLB can certainly do better than the NFL which has established a standard of mediocrity.
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Interesting read – THANKS!
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Thank you for reading and commenting!
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I think a salary floor, paired with the luxury tax, is a great idea!
Of course, MLB would need to give it a different name.
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Thanks for commenting! Something needs to be done, that’s for sure.
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When Pete Rozelle was the commissioner of the NFL, back in the 80s, he had this philosophy that “the NFL is only as strong as its weakest team“. That I think is a philosophy that MLB needs to take to heart.
The 30 MLB teams are not independent companies trying to put each other out of business. They are 30 subsidiaries of one company, trying to make as much product and as much profit as they collectively can.
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Exactly!
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