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 Now that the 2009 World Series trophy sits within the office of the New York Yankees' $1.5 billion dollar stadium, having been won by a team with a $200 million dollar payroll, it's inevitable that the discussion over whether baseball needs a salary cap once again bubbles up to the surface. Without one, its proponents claim, baseball will always be divided into the rich and greedy big market haves and the poor or unmotivated small market have-nots. The whole discussion is primarily a hypothetical one. A salary cap, which in essence incorporates some of the more unseemly aspects of restraint of trade and collusive price fixing, primarily comes about as the result of labor negotiations and collective bargaining agreements. Look at how well MLB's owners and players got together on the whole steroid testing fiasco and imagine them hashing out the complexities of a workable salary cap system. Plus, how would you implement it? Alex Rodriguez' contract is guaranteed, the Yankees can't cut him to fit him under the salary cap and I doubt he would voluntarily take a $20 million per year pay cut. Although if he did, the Yankees would get off scot free cause A-Rod's agent would kill him.
Setting the practicalities aside, would a salary cap help baseball? In the NFL, the salary cap seems to succeed in its goal of keeping the league competitive. Given the dynamics of the game, one player, whether it is a wise and savvy veteran like Peyton Manning or a wickedly talented runner like Chris Johnson, cannot win a championship on their own. Discounting the significant factor of non-guaranteed contracts, the salary cap's goal was parity and for the most part, it's furthered the effort. There aren't many other professional sports leagues where a 1-15 team like the Miami Dolphins goes to the playoffs one year later. In the NBA, where one player can have a more pronounced effect on a team's success, the cap results in keeping much of the high-priced superstars on separate teams but oftentimes will set the stage for bizarre, collusive looking trades. When a salary cap in MLB comes about, this is what people have in mind: a superstar in every city and competitive playoff races in every division throughout the entire season. Well that and the Yankees being forced to rely more heavily on grooming their minor leaguers instead of using small market teams as their farm system.
The capitalist in me hates the idea of a salary cap: should America's Pastime really be governed by a socialist economic model? The baseball fan in me though is intrigued by the prospect. Forget Moneyball, Sabermetrics and cost-efficient long-term strategies, the Yankees upped their game this year by throwing a half million dollars at Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and jacking their payroll north of $200 million. What if that option is off the table? What if the salary cap prevents such lavish spending by a team that already employs the highest-paid player in baseball? What if the rich aren't allowed to get richer? Of the eight spots in the 2009 post-season, four of them (Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Phillies) were taken by teams that had one of the top eight payrolls with the Dodgers owning the ninth. You can't really say that an inflated payroll equals success but it surely gives you a leg up.
The main problem is that MLB has too many multi-millionaire owners that bewilderingly haven't figured out how to turn a profit with their franchise. Either that or they put the financial bottom line ahead of putting together a championship quality team. When wealthy owners like Jeff Moorad (San Diego), Robert Nutting (Pittsburgh) and Larry Dolan (Cleveland) plead poverty from their summer mansions, you can spot where the true problem lies. Owners who expect to undercapitalize their investment while claiming it's the fans' fault for not wanting to pay full value for a substandard product are a problem that a salary cap will not fix. It's not that the Yankees outspend their competition; it's that they choose to do so.
A salary cap won't force owners to go the extra mile, which brings up an equally ineffective proposal: a salary floor. This just smacks of a recipe for certain owners to misspend and misallocate more money that it already seems like they already do. The players' union took umbrage with the Marlins organization for pocketing revenue sharing money instead of pouring it back into the franchise in the form of higher player salaries. Despite the fact that Florida has remained relatively competitive and has a squad full of talented youngsters like Josh Johnson, Hanley Ramirez, Cameron Maybin and NL Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan, they apparently weren't spending enough to get that type of performance. I guess that the fact that they've consistently out produced the New York Mets, whose payroll has lately exceeded theirs by approximately 400%, is something we're supposed to ignore.
Last week, the Marlins management informally agreed with the player's union to increase their payroll. What exactly will this accomplish? It will surely help the Marlins' players, they'll make more money. It's ridiculous to imagine that it will help the quality of play. Ideally, the Marlins take the money they would have to spend to reach a minimum team salary and shrewdly bring in a number of free agents that can help the team and they win more ball games. However, if the last decade has shown us anything, it's that no matter how much of an effort a franchise makes to buy the pot and purchase a World Series victory, it doesn't always work out that way. What's more likely to happen is that the Marlins, or any team that has to come above a salary floor, will enter into a couple dumb contracts a la Barry Zito and regret that they've tied up money in an untradeable contract on which they get little return. - David Schultz
For more years than he can remember, Schultz' musings on rotisserie baseball have graced rotoworld.com. Depending on your viewpoint, he either anchors or weighs down 'The Week That Was' column that he is told appears on USA Today and NBC Web Sites. His ramblings can also be found on Earvolution.com and jambands.com.
If you haven't voted in our poll on the site yet please do so. We are trying to get a feel for how our readers are looking at the game of MLB so we can write about things they want to hear. The poll question is, "Do you think that MLB should have a salary cap or something similar?" - Please vote.
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