Between another sluggish offseason and an expiring CBA, the only choice MLB has to save baseball is putting in a salary floor.
In the 2021 MLB season, Mike Trout will make more money than….the Cleveland Indians.
Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Jaguars spent around $160 million more on their roster last season than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent on Tom Brady. The lowest NBA payroll is over twice what Steph Curry will bring home this year.
Okay, technically that NBA example only works if you count the Hornets second lowest NBA payroll- we all know the Knicks should have been relegated for Kentucky years ago. The point still stands.
Back to MLB though, there’s nothing new about finding ludicrous disparities like that. Trevor Bauer will out-earn both the Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates this season. In 2003, the New York Yankees top three players earned more than the Miami Marlins team that beat them in the World Series. Examples of embarrassing riches for some, and pocket change for others, can be plucked from every season.
That’s just what happens when you don’t have a salary cap. It’s been a problem in MLB for years- since the 1994 strike, if not earlier.
And for years, it was precisely the implementation of a salary cap that was seen by many as a way to fix baseball’s apparent competitive balance issues. To help make up for the Chuck Knoblauchs of the world leaving the Minnesota Twins, for the Marlins not being able to pay Derrek Lee or Ivan Rodriguez, for the Oakland A’s losing Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon (much to the chagrin of Brad Pitt). In many ways, the current incarnation of the luxury tax- first instilled by MLB in 1996- effectively is a cap, as repeater penalties have gotten very costly for even the Yankees of the world.
However, the last several years have shown that a salary cap isn’t going to fix anything in MLB at all. What is needed, more than ever, is a salary floor.
Why you ask? Only for the sake of every baseball fan, and the very survival of the sport.