Bryce Harper
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There are a lot of great points here. Another issue the owners are now dealing with is the downfall of the Regional Sports Network. This certainly may not affect teams like the Red Sox, Yanks, and others with the well known networks, but most of the teams considered smaller market are certainly losing out.
Revenue sharing should help offset the cost, but even trying to find how much teams are getting is somewhat difficult to find as a fan. Can you imagine turning on MLB Network and the hosts are analyzing the revenue sharing numbers received for small market teams. They could have an hour for each team prior to the start of the year. But, definately would not be in the best interest of the owners. Imagine being a fan of (just an example) of the Twins, and finding out they received 50 million in revenue sharing and did not put it back into the team via free agents. The larger market teams are sharing the wealth.
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I just feel this shows you a strike is coming. this one could be a long one. There should be a salary cap and a salary floor. Players are against the cap and for the floor, and Owners are against a floor and for the cap. Bottomline, the start of the 2027 season will be very interesting.
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@SavageSteve74_PSN said in Bryce Harper:
Revenue sharing already sends ~$110M+ per team from pooled local revenue. That’s not “no support” for smaller markets.
This needs to be talked about more.
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@Wilbs715_XBL said in Bryce Harper:
@SavageSteve74_PSN said in Bryce Harper:
Revenue sharing already sends ~$110M+ per team from pooled local revenue. That’s not “no support” for smaller markets.
This needs to be talked about more.
This and your other posts are entirely on target. The luxury tax is providing revenues to the small market teams. A few are using it to improve player talent. However, other owners are pocketing the luxury tax shared revenue. Again, folks, this is where a negotiated salary floor will force these selfish owners to raise their payrolls to at least meet the floor, or if they refuse, then the league per the new contract could step in and take over the team.
The players have to look at this logically and Harper's vulgar threats to the commissioner don't help that process develop, and like Manfred or not (and I despise the man for what he did to Atlanta's All Star game in 2021) at least Manfred is trying to explain this to the players.
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@PriorFir4383355_XBL said in Bryce Harper:
Again, folks, this is where a negotiated salary floor will force these selfish owners to raise their payrolls to at least meet the floor, or if they refuse, then the league per the new contract could step in and take over the team.
Problem with the salary floor is that are some occasions where an entire teardown is needed to build from scratch.
Take the 2013 Astros. They wound up with a $26 million payroll because they tore it down to the foundation. But that gave plenty of playing opportunities and empty roster spots for Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Lance McCullers, Brad Peacock and Dallas Keuchel.
2 years later, they drafted Bregman, Tucker, and Daz Cameron (trade bait for Justin Verlander.)
2 years after that, Rings (and trash cans) for everyone!
Sometimes getting rid of everything and starting over is the right move. The issue is when you do hit on rookies and draft picks (like the Astros did), they backed it up by trading for Verlander, and spending money on Morton, Beltran, & Reddick.
Would the 2013 Astros been better off spending a bunch of money on Joe Blanton or Jonny Gomes or the dessicated remains of Torii Hunter and block up all those roster spots?
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@SaveFarris_PSN look at examples of this exact scenario from NHL teams. When you do this in the nhl the rebuilding team will take on a few “bad contracts” to reach the floor, but the team dumping that contract via the trade usually has to send draft picks/or prospects along with the bad contracts. For MLB it doesn’t quite work as well as the teams can’t trade MOST picks. But it could work.
There are 1000s of things that will need to be sorted out both ways. Grandfathering in current contracts, contract length caps, arbitration, do you have restricted free agent years as a player? How long until you hit free agency, etc.
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Good point, but I think MLB doesn't like the "tear it down" approach, and I know the players don't either. So, this is a compromise to be had, and one I think the owners would agree to in order to prevent losing the 2027 season. The Astros and the Braves both tore down and rebuilt and ended up winning World Series titles. However, other teams tried it and it failed and mired those teams in a decade of futility, eroded attendance, and angry fandoms.
I'm willing to sacrifice this option to tear down and rebuild in return for all teams being essentially mandated to put competitive teams on the field each and every season. The GM's and owners would have to be smart with the money they spend because the price of signing a player to a huge salary and losing them to injury or seeing their production crater would be far greater.
Right now, the teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets can make mistakes and eat the costs. They don't have to worry about a salary cap. But, the salary floor firmly prevents selfish owners from pocketing their profits vice invest in competitive player rosters -- precisely what Rob Manfred is wanting for the league, and he has the vast majority of the owners on his side in this.
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said in Bryce Harper:
Good point, but I think MLB doesn't like the "tear it down" approach, and I know the players don't either. So, this is a compromise to be had, and one I think the owners would agree to in order to prevent losing the 2027 season. The Astros and the Braves both tore down and rebuilt and ended up winning World Series titles. However, other teams tried it and it failed and mired those teams in a decade of futility, eroded attendance, and angry fandoms.
I'm willing to sacrifice this option to tear down and rebuild in return for all teams being essentially mandated to put competitive teams on the field each and every season. The GM's and owners would have to be smart with the money they spend because the price of signing a player to a huge salary and losing them to injury or seeing their production crater would be far greater.
Right now, the teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets can make mistakes and eat the costs. They don't have to worry about a salary cap. But, the salary floor firmly prevents selfish owners from pocketing their profits vice invest in competitive player rosters -- precisely what Rob Manfred is wanting for the league, and he has the vast majority of the owners on his side in this.
In terms of blocking promotion, teams can always do what the Braves did and ID talent early and sign them to long term contracts before they hit arbitration, much less free agency. This may also force MLB teams to abandon this obsession with pitchers throwing every pitch with max effort, since injuries to starters and relievers would be far more acute if a salary floor and cap were in place.
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@PriorFir4383355_XBL there would probably be a provision for this, like LTIR in the NHL. Another can of worms.
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@yankblan_PSN agreed. The whole process will be lengthy and most likely involve a third party that specializes in the cap environments.
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@SavageSteve74_PSN, I don’t mean to keep this thread alive, but just felt the need to acknowledge that yours was a thoughtful and well organized explanation.
I’d mentioned that I wasn’t an ardent supporter of a cap; having grown up an A’s fan in the East Bay and not having invested much time in looking into the issue as deeply as some, I was inclined to at least entertain the cap as a potential solution to flailing franchises… your response helped fill in some gaps for me with regard to the alternate perspective.
That’s going to give me some reading to do, now, but I appreciate the info and the way it was presented.
Cheers.
