{"id":320907,"date":"2025-12-02T16:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320907\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T16:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:58:15","slug":"why-mlbs-cheapest-teams-are-at-least-trying-to-seem-like-theyre-trying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320907\/","title":{"rendered":"Why MLB’s Cheapest Teams Are At Least Trying To Seem Like They’re Trying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defector has partnered with Baseball Prospectus to bring you a taste of their work. They write good shit that we think you\u2019ll like.\u00a0If you do like it, we encourage you to check out their\u00a0site and subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was\u00a0originally published at Baseball Prospectus on November 26<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You have probably heard a little about the Pirates and Marlins trying to sign the kinds of free agents you wouldn\u2019t normally associate them with.\u00a0Josh Naylor,\u00a0Kyle Schwarber,\u00a0Michael King? Looking to maybe bring in Nippon Professional Baseball\u2019s\u00a0Kazuma Okamoto\u00a0now that he\u2019s been posted to MLB? Sure, none of those guys are going to make\u00a0Kyle Tucker\u00a0money, but it\u2019s still a surprise to see them even going toward a \u201cwe tried\u201d result with that level of free agent.<\/p>\n

The thing is, they probably actually\u00a0are\u00a0trying. Not to build a winner, necessarily, but to spend some money. Evan Drellich at\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0posited a number of theories<\/a>\u00a0as to why these two low-payroll bottom-feeders would be looking to spend some cash now, and they are both sound and had some backing from sources anonymous and otherwise. There is one that stuck out as the most-likely of the bunch, however, and it was supported by agent Sam Levinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a possibility of a fight among clubs over revenue sharing, with the smaller markets seeing a greater contribution,\u201d agent Seth Levinson said. \u201cThe payors (large-market clubs) will argue that insufficient revenue-sharing funds are being spent on player acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHence, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if the smaller markets compete for talent in the free-agent market to convince the payors that they are committed to putting a better product on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason this one sticks out as more convincing than, say, the idea that this willingness to spend is about \u201copportunity\u201d\u2014please recall that the Marlins lost Kim Ng because they refused to rise to the challenge of\u00a0spending even a little bit more<\/a>\u00a0to improve\u2014is that whether it\u2019s a salary cap or a revised revenue-sharing system, we\u2019re in for a change to MLB\u2019s economic structure, at least on the ownership side. And as has been said a few times now, the salary cap part feels unlikely, both because there is\u00a0too much at stake<\/a>\u00a0for the owners right now, and because it\u2019s not like the players are going to engage that topic for a second<\/a> during bargaining.<\/p>\n

That idea that the larger markets need to see evidence that teams like the Pirates and Marlins wouldn\u2019t just pocket additional revenue-sharing funds, though? That they would actually use them to put a better product on the field? That checks out, especially since it wasn\u2019t that long ago that a couple of those larger markets\u00a0spoke up on the issue<\/a>\u00a0of having to shell out more of their cut to the rest of the league. In October, I wrote about the Red Sox and Dodgers being open to the idea of an expanded revenue-sharing model, which commissioner Rob Manfred has been pushing\u2014one that pools broadcast revenue together and keeps clubs like Boston and Los Angeles from having quite as much of an advantage in that regard as they currently do. <\/p>\n

There is a way to convince these teams to go all the way with such an arrangement, even if it costs them money, because the overall health of the sport can make them plenty more, too. If the Pirates, Marlins, Athletics, and whichever other teams are just going to stick under $100 million payrolls forever, though\u2014the Pirates\u00a0already\u00a0are\u00a0profitable<\/a>\u00a0but pretend not to be, so it\u2019s not immediately and inherently believable that they would be fine spending additional revenue-sharing money in the future\u2014then why should the Dodgers and Red Sox play ball?<\/p>\n

And then you have Yankees\u2019 owner Hal Steinbrenner on the record\u00a0supporting a salary floor<\/a>, while not wanting to commit to adding a cap:<\/p>\n

In February,\u00a0Steinbrenner<\/a>\u00a0said he might support a salary cap proposal as long as it contains a provision mandating minimum payrolls. MLB has had a luxury tax in place since 2003 but is the only one of the four major U.S. professional leagues without a salary cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that would be reasonable enough that it would improve competitive balance significantly in the sport,\u201d Steinbrenner said when asked about a possible salary floor. \u201cMany fans already argue it\u2019s not been enough. I think we made strides the last 10 years in some of the things we\u2019ve done but as an industry probably not near where we need to be, at least that\u2019s what the majority of the fans believe and there\u2019s a number of ways to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all of Steinbrenner\u2019s sins over the years in not pushing even harder with the Yankees\u2019 payroll considering their vast resources, or\u00a0whining<\/a>\u00a0about how New York can\u2019t actually maintain a $300 million payroll every year\u2014they could\u2014he has also long been annoyed about other clubs not spending within their own means. At least New York hits Opening Day with an impressive-looking figure for those who don\u2019t know they could spend even more. People buy that the Pirates can\u2019t spend more when they absolutely could, because they\u2019ve conditioned everyone to think that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

The other owners, though, know the score here. And they know that these clubs\u2014the Marlins had the lowest payroll in MLB in 2025 at $67 million, while the Pirates ranked 26th at nearly $88 million\u2014could spend more. They let them off the hook every year because it\u2019s good for business and helping to depress free agent salaries, but there comes a point where enough is enough\u2014for the teams that Pittsburgh and Miami are currently trying to impress, per Levinson\u2019s reckoning, that point is right now, when the owners are discussing the feasibility of further pooling together their broadcast revenues in order to have a model that more closely resembles the NFL\u2019s, which would give the Pirates and Marlins a better opportunity to compete for free agents without needing to have any local media\u00a0come up with a half-baked investigation<\/a>\u00a0into how actually you are short on funds so your behaviors are justified.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The thing is, a salary floor isn\u2019t likely\u2014MLB would want to attach it to a cap, as they attempted to do\u00a0during bargaining four years ago<\/a>, and owners like Pittsburgh\u2019s Bob Nutting would demand as much and be able to get enough votes to torpedo any deal that didn\u2019t do that\u2014so the best that the other owners can hope for is to get these teams to spend toward some unofficial point that suggests, okay, you\u2019re being legitimate right now. And to do that, they have to threaten to withhold the revenue-sharing funds that the Pirates and Marlins so desperately want\u2014a desperation that seems implied by their behavior early in this free agent season.<\/p>\n

Now, whether the Pirates and Marlins will actually succeed in bringing in any of these free agents remains to be seen: neither is considered a destination players go because they actually want to be there, though, Miami can likely convince some players to make their way there so long as their new deals are sufficiently armed with opt-outs, and Pittsburgh, at least, can point to\u00a0Paul Skenes\u00a0as the kind of difference maker that could help the team thrive if only he had some help. If they can\u2019t bring in free agents, though, and can\u2019t raise their payroll as they would like it, it will be because of the reputations they have earned through their own action and inaction over the years. At that point, they will just have to hope they were convincing enough to get the Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, and others to agree that they at least gave this spending thing a genuine shot, or else there is going to be a lot of begging for expanded revenue-sharing over the next year.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defector has partnered with Baseball Prospectus to bring you a taste of their work. They write good shit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-320907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}