Pondering Parity Within America's Pastime
Today, we look at the payroll discrepancies across the MLB as the Postseason gets fully underway and consider what that means for the league.
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Pregame Pepper - Postseason Posts
Leading Off
MLB Counting On Guardians, Mariners To Perpetuate Parity Myth
By Sean Millerick
Want to know the difference between what the New York Mets spent on a playoff team and what the Atlanta Braves did in 2022?
Cleveland.
Yet despite that hilarious disparity, the Guardians have already advanced-undefeated- to the next round. So too have the Seattle Mariners, even with a bottom-third payroll. Meanwhile, the Mets got shut out and sent home last night, and the St. Louis Cardinals, who spent twice on their roster what the Guardians did, were also sent packing.
Proof positive that payroll in MLB isn’t an issue, right? Wrong.
Twelve teams made the playoffs in 2022. Nine of them were in the top twelve in MLB payroll. No matter what happens Sunday night, four of the top five MLB payrolls will have made it to the second round. Every remaining NL team is in the top ten. So while the Guardians and Mariners are certainly cool stories and everything, it should hardly be enough to mask the fact that teams compete on anything close to an equal playing field.
Except it will. Or rather it will be presented by MLB as such. Presented that way by the league, and necessarily swallowed as true by millions of baseball fans over the next six months as they look for a reason to believe 2023 will play out any differently than 2022 did. Maybe their team will be the one that captures lightning in a bottle and gets that right mix of savvy signings and young prospects to make a run. And for one or two fanbases, that might actually happen. At the end of the day though, money talks and the surest path to greater success next season for MLB teams is spending more on the MLB team.
The only problem is that the Astros, Dodgers, Mets, and Padres will simply respond in kind. MLB needs a salary cap and absolutely needs a salary floor. It’s a fact that has become more evident every season, and one that even a Cinderella championship from Cleveland wouldn’t change.
Granted, on the surface, hell freezing over seems an easier ask than either side in the payroll debate giving major ground on that score. Putting a cap on payroll is anathema to the MLBPA. Setting a minimum bar for spending has traditionally been a non-starter for ownership. But at some point, watching a foregone conclusion will stop being watchable. Unless you’re fortunate enough to be a fan of one of the big spenders anyway.
This brings us back to this 2022 postseason, and just what exactly is in the best interest of the sport. Is it the luxury tax-flaunting Mets running away with a title? Or is it a team that doesn’t even spend $90 million shocking the world? You can honestly argue for and against both scenarios.
On one hand, maybe Rob Manfred having to hand Steve Cohen a trophy proves that long-term, salary reform is needed. That, or just convinces more owners that they have to seriously ramp up spending to compete in a changing landscape. They’d be right to do so. Then again, maybe the majority of fans tune out for a battle of the billionaires. Plenty of broadcasting money comes out of New York and California. However, you can only get so excited so many times about the Astros and Dodgers, or even a Subway Series.
On the other, deep playoff runs by Cleveland and Seattle mask the payroll problem and will spark interest with new teams and better stories playing on into October. New blood is always fun. But one low-payroll championship, and probably even just a low-payroll LCS berth, could prove enough justification for even greater depths of penury from MLB owners.
So far, it’s been a fun postseason, a trend that hopefully continues. But there’s no denying that the most fascinating and consequential story to watch develop won’t be who wins it all in 2022.
It’s going to be to see MLB fans and owners respond to that in 2023.
Sean Millerick is a diehard Miami Marlins fan but still finds cause for hope every Spring Training. He currently writes for @CallToThePen. You can find him on Twitter @miasportsminute.