Salary Cap in Baseball: Yes or No? - SBartlett's Blog

SBartlett's Blog

Salary Cap in Baseball: Yes or No?

Posted on April 27, 2010 at 03:26 PM.

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I am writing up an essay on the topic to apply for the Red Sox Fellowship program and so I am beginning my research. I would like some of the OS community's thoughts on this.

I am aware that the league already does some revenue sharing for those willing to exceed an arbitrarily assigned league payroll and expense. So in a way, that's a soft cap. I like this type of governance in part by the MLB. If they can curve the spending a bit, redistribute it to smaller market teams who have no shot at the big time free agents unless they are a product of their farm system, then I think that it's a fair way to regulate 30 owners and 30 teams. I need to look up if the MLB has a form of Bird Rights/Years for hometown players as the NBA does.

Some owners cut payroll to keep expenses down, and hold on to the rest of the revenue. Their biggest expense, of course, is 10 million a year players.

At the same time, some teams just don't have a big enough market to bring in the t.v. revenue deals and viewership, sponsor deals, and ticket sales as the Sox, Yanks, Angels, among others.

So how do you find the balance? If you redistribute revenue to owners with money who cut their payroll spending to make it appear as they are not in a competitive enough market, then it defeats the purpose.

Also, some owners take advantage of accounting principles and depreciate player contracts over time to make them even bigger losses on the bottom line so they can report lower income at the end of the year - thus pushing them into a lower tax bracket.

So I like the model in place a bit. I have to research it more. I wouldn't want MLB to regulate spending - it's a free market after all. I agree with some form of governance and monitoring - not full on cap regulation.

A salary cap would change the landscape, and work to the advantage of the league in terms of competition and paradoy amongst teams clearly, but it also detracts from the league's best owners and best business models, and puts the ball in the court of owners who may not be as committed to winning.

Those are my first impressions before going into the research. I am about to read this document a bit: http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/pa/pdf/cba_english.pdf

Thoughts anybody?

Comments

# 1 kingbrandon56 @ Apr 27

Of Course. Its hurting the sport by not having one because the playing field is so uneven. The Yankees and Red Sox have their choice on which free agents they want to sign ever year. The revenue sharing is a joke because it doesn't work the way it does in the nfl, which is now americas favorite pass time. In the NFL if a team is bad it's because of the decisions the front office made or injuries. In baseball you have to have luck and or a good farm system and scouts on your side if you don't have a huge payroll.

# 2 str8artist @ Apr 27

If you want a balanced sport, A cap is a must have.

# 3 stlstudios189 @ Apr 27

the problem is with a salary cap of $80 mil or so teams like KC, SD, Pitt, and Cinn will still only spend $40. The real problem is players making $25 mil a season. I think there should have caps on how much you can pay one specific player

# 4 kingbrandon56 @ Apr 27

# 2ruserl88 - Your right about the minimum part because swear some baseball teams try to under pay their team on purpose. Like they aren't trying to compete some years. The florida marlins have done this before in the past.

# 5 rspencer86 @ Apr 28

To prevent teams from coming in way under the cap, just implement a salary floor as well.

A lot of people say there is plenty of parity in baseball now, and while I agree it is getting more competitive, the small market teams are still at a huge disadvantage. A bad big-money signing for the Yankees stings a little bit, but they can easily recover and continue to succeed. That same mistake for the Royals cripples the entire organization for several years.

Sure, the Twins and Rays have shown you don't have to spend huge money to have success, but these teams have been ran damn near perfectly and still haven't collected any World Series titles.

It's about time to even the playing field. Let the GMs, coaches, and players decide who is the best team instead of the size of the owner's coffers.