A Salary Cap and Baseball Don’t Mix

Earlier this month, Mariano Rivera threw a 3-2 cutter to the Phillies’ Shane Victorino, who then grounded out to Robinson Cano. For the Yankees, it was the end of a long journey. 177 games that all began when newly signed ace C.C. Sabathia took the hill in Baltimore to start the season were all over. The Yankees were finally at the top of the baseball world once again. While their fans sang songs of joy, the fans of other teams were singing to a different tune – a salary cap. The Yankees spent nearly $70 million more on their roster than any other Major League Baseball team in 2009, a trend that we have seen every year for as long as we can remember.

My Stance on a Salary Cap

While I find many positives in a system where a salary cap exists, I can find just as many negatives barring a complete restructuring of the league. My stance on a salary cap in baseball is that I don’t believe it would work, nor do I believe  it would be helpful.

Before you call me a Yankee, Mets, Cubs or Red Sox fan and close the article in disgust, I want you to know I take this stance as a die hard Toronto Blue Jays fan. I’m a fan of a team that would have made the playoffs in many other divisions a few times in the past years if it weren’t for the enormous payrolls of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Shouldn’t I be the guy at the front of the line when it comes to arguing for a salary cap? Absolutely. But I’ll tell you why I’m not.

After several seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays, J.P. Ricciardi was let go after a failure overcome the Red Sox and Yankees

Salary Cap Positives

These are pretty simple. We’ve heard these time and time again. Most points are nothing less than the obvious.

• Equal opportunity for all teams come free agency
• Fair chance for teams to resign homegrown players
• If owners are paying players less, we might see cheaper ticket prices
• The difference between #1 on the payroll ranks and #30 wouldn’t be $170 million

Salary Cap Negatives

Most of the people who are pro-salary cap don’t realize these. These are all huge deals and would probably require a full scale restructure of Major League Baseball. Let’s pretend that there is a salary cap of $100 million. The average payroll of an MLB team in 2009 was around $90 million. Let’s just think of the Yankees in this scenario. They’ll have around $100 million more to work with.

• The MLB draft would become a joke as the Yankees would be going overslot on every player
• Players would recognize this and may refuse to sign with certain teams knowing they might get double from the Evil Empire
• The Yankees would be able to lure every top scout and top executive in baseball to their organization
• International free agents would all belong to the richest franchises

You might not think the four points above mean a whole lot, but by adding a salary cap you would be getting rid of the primary method the smaller market teams use to get on the level of a big spender like the Yankees, Mets, Cubs or Red Sox.

Why a Salary Cap is Useless

Well, I don’t mean completely useless. However, the problem isn’t exactly the enormous amount of money some teams have but the fact that some owners are just unwilling to spend money on their team. The money is there for them, but they refuse to use it.

A good example of this was the season that the Florida Marlins received almost as much money from revenue sharing (coming from luxury tax) as they spent on their entire roster. In fact, the Yankees were penalized by the luxury tax in 2006 and paid a total of $26 million. The Marlins payroll in 2006 was $21.1 million on opening day.

Why a Salary Cap Won’t Exist

Where do you even begin here? First of all, the idea has been proposed several times. If it were going to happen, it would have gotten further than just being an idea by now. Most of all, think of it this way:

If you’re a Major League Baseball player, why would you agree to take a pay cut? So that the owners can make even more money? Not every team has ownership as great as the New York Yankees. We’ve already covered some owners’ unwillingness to spend money that they have. Many owners make significant profit on small payroll teams. They run it like a business. Why would you take a pay cut to increase their profits? You already know that the profits they currently make aren’t going into the team, so what makes you think any further profits would?

The Florida Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and 2003

Money Doesn’t Equal Success

Championship parody in baseball is present. Let’s look at the last ten years (since 2000) in comparison to the other leagues with salary caps:

• The NFL has 6 different winners
• The NBA has 5 since 2000
• The NHL has 7 (salary cap introduced in 05/06)
• The MLB has had 8 different winners

Let’s not forget that the Minnesota Twins are competitive year in and year out while being amongst the lowest payrolls in baseball. The Florida Marlins won two World Series (‘97, ‘03) with a small payroll and the Arizona Diamondbacks did so too (‘01). At the start of the decade, the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics were great teams that were also built on payrolls near the bottom of the league.

The A’s won 85+ games six years in a row, including two years of 100+ wins. Take a look at the Tampa Bay Rays who overcame the AL East’s financial juggernauts and snagged a playoff spot in 2008.

“It would be malpractice not to do research. Of course, it would also be malpractice to make a foolish trade.”

- Billy Beane

Success is a product of the organization as a whole. It is the organizations that are open-minded to the revolutionary baseball statistics. It is the front office that makes the right trades for the right reasons. It is the general managers and scouts who know what amateur draftee to take every June. It is about the owner who is dedicated to winning, not solely making profit.

Derek Boucher can be reached at derek@peteprose.com