Ken Rosenthal isn't the only one who's slightly staggered that Rob Manfred actually tried to speak reasonably about the current ponderings of a baseball salary cap. Slightly, but perhaps not irrevocably.
Said Commissioner Pepperwinkle when some owners began making some pro-cap noise, "I am a huge believer in the idea that there are always multiple solutions to a particular set of concerns." Said Rosenthal, though, playing the trust-your-mother-but-cut-the-cards card, "It's possible, perhaps even likely, Manfred was playing possum when he spoke of 'multiple solutions' for revenue disparity."
Let's remember, as Rosenthal does by way of Forbes, that baseball in 2024 generated $12.1 billion in revenues, a new record even if it's not as ritzy a record as Aaron Judge's American League single-season home run record. The math says that's an average $400 million per major league franchise.
Alas, some owners and team executives have begun to bellyache well ahead of the current collective bargaining agreement's 2026 expiration. Rosenthal cites a few who may or may not surprise you: the Orioles' new owner, David Rubenstein; the Yankees' veteran owner Hal Steinbrenner; the Mets's president David Stearns.
Rubenstein has said he wishes baseball a salary cap "the way other sports do." Steinbrenner says those profligate Dodgers it's difficult "for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they're doing now." Stearns says baseball has "a little tougher time" figuring out how to keep stars who came up through the smaller market organizations in those organizations.
Not so fast, Rosenthal rejoins:
Funny, Rubenstein is a private equity billionaire who last March, with no assurance of a cap, had no problem paying $1.735 billion for the control stake of the Orioles . . . Funny, Forbes last March valued Steinbrenner's team at a major-league high $7.55 billion and the Dodgers at $5.45 billion . . . Funny, Stearns previously worked for the Brewers, who play in the smallest market in baseball, yet signed outfielders Christian Yelich to a nine-year, $215 million contract and Jackson Chourio-after Stearns departed-to an eight-year, $82 million deal. And the Brewers . . . consistently find a way to compete.
"There is no disputing that small-market teams are at a financial disadvantage, and often lose star players," Rosenthal continues. "But it's also true that those teams occasionally keep some stars long-term, and perhaps could invest more of their revenue-sharing dollars in major-league payroll."
Perhaps they could take the cue from the late Peter Seidler, whose Padres have been "proof that small-market teams should not operate as if they are doomed." Seidler may also have been one of the only exceptions (countable on a single hand) to the rule that no fan ever pays their way into the ballpark to see the team's owner. That's how fan friendly he was before his death.
The Padres may or may not have spent all wisely, all the time. But as Rosenthal notes, they do have three postseasons in the past five years (including and especially the thriller with the Phillies that climaxed in Bryce Harper's mud-bowl home run) and four consecutive attendance rankings in the top five.
"Make the luxury-tax thresholds higher, but the penalties steeper; about 50 percent of luxury-tax proceeds go to small-market teams," Rosenthal adds.
Redistribute draft picks to give small-market clubs better positions and additional selections. Force those teams to spend by instituting penalties for falling below certain payroll thresholds, similar to the ones that exist at the top of the luxury-tax structure.
Don't like those ideas? Fine, come up with others . . . How would the sport revive from another stoppage? The owners advocating for a cap should not even want to flirt with that question. Their "sky is falling" act is already growing tiresome. Fix the sport some other way. Or sell your damn team.
Meanwhile, Rosenthal's Athletic colleague Jayson Stark reminds one and all that playing the "competitive balance" card while agitating for a baseball salary cap is about as credible as calling the NFL the true parity league or the Trump Administration the true stewards of the Constitution.
How many baseball teams broke decades-long championship droughts, 50 years or longer, since 2001? Stark asks. And, answers: 8 — the 2002 Angels, the 2004 Red Sox, the 2005 White Sox, the 2010 Giants, the 2016 Cubs, the 2017 Astros*, the 2019 Nationals, and the 2023 Rangers. How many NFL teams have done likewise since 2001? 3 — the 2009 Saints, the 2017 Eagles, and the 2020 Chiefs.
Stark has more myths to bust, and bust them he does, admirably:
Come Sunday, the Chiefs sought their third straight Super Bowl and fourth in the past six years. Meanwhile, among baseball's behemoths whom some owners and a lot of witless fans claim are Ruining The Old Ball Game while the NFL is the Any Team Can Win league, Stark points forth:
"The Dodgers? They've won four World Series in the last 59 years." Perspective: Those four began shortly after the Beatles performed their final-ever American concert . . . in what was then the home of the Dodgers' hated rivals up north in the Bay Area.
"The Braves? They've won four World Series in the last 121 years." Perspective: They won their first Series just a few months before Archduke Ferdinand's assassination launched the world war that made the world safe for World War II.
"The Red Sox? They've won four World Series in the last 106 years." Perspective: before the first of those, the United States had 16 presidents — from a former Princeton president named Woodrow Wilson to a former baseball owner named George W. Bush.
"The Giants? They've won four World Series in the last 91 years." Perspective: Prior to 2010, the Giants hadn't won a Series since the year of America's first black radio network, the first mass polio vaccinations for children (in Pittsburgh, where the Pirates would finish dead last in the National League), and Edward R. Murrow handed Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy a television knockdown punch.
"The Cardinals? They've won four World Series in the last 60 years." Perspective: You can make it five in the last 61, with their 1964 Series triumph against the Yankees . . . to whom their Series-winning manager would repair as their next manager following the disgraceful pre-ordained dumping of Yankee skipper Yogi Berra.
"The Phillies? The Astros? They've won four World Series combined in the history of their franchises." Perspective: The Phillies had to beat the Astros to win the 1980 pennant that led to their first-ever Series triumph — 32 years before the Astros were the team to be named later in the swap that sent the Brewers to the National League and the Astros to the American League.
The Yankees? Their dominance and dynasties are just so 20th century, even if their wealth isn't. Stark reminds us that we've seen 22 World Series since baseball decided to slap the big spenders with the luxury tax. The Yankees have won — wait for it! — exactly one of those Series.
Oh, yes: the Empire Emeritus and the Damn Dodgers have met in exactly four World Series since America's bicentennial birthday bash. Want to know the score? Dead heat: two Series each . . . and the Yankees won both of theirs during the disco era — 1977 and 1978.
Before last fall, Stark would like to enlighten or remind you, regarding tangles between two out of the five fattest payrolls in the game over the past 35 Series, "a World Series like that had happened precisely three times in those 35 years: 2018 (Dodgers/Red Sox) ... 1999 (Yankees/Braves) ... and 1996 (also Yankees/Braves). And that's it."
Meanwhile, what Stark calls the Sport That's Broken has seen twelve 2024 teams with Opening Day payrolls less than $130 million, but he points out that 1) all but two of those teams played October baseball over the past five years; and, 2) all but four of them made the postseason in the past two years.
By the way, the salary-cap NFL has had 18 distinct Super Bowl champions in the 49 years since the Messersmith decision ended baseball's reserve era. Before you holler a-ha! be advised that baseball without the salary cap has had 24 distinct World Series champions in the same 49 years.
Repeat after me: baseball's sky isn't falling. How can you tell an owner is lying? When his or their lips form the word "poverty" or synonyms thereof while forming the phrase "salary cap." But how can you tell fans hollering for a salary cap are disingenuous? When their lips don't form the phrase "salary floor."
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