OnlyBucs

To me, the only realistic way to establish equity among 30 different clubs is to set the payroll at a certain level and have all teams spend to within $2-3 million of that amount.



A ceiling will be meaningless to an organization like the Pirates, and a floor will be meaningless to the large market franchises. The best way to achieve equity is to require all 30 clubs to spend the same amount of money.

0C5A4C58574D5D565B4C7E59535F5752105D3E0 wrote: To me, the only realistic way to establish equity among 30 different clubs is to set the payroll at a certain level and have all teams spend to within $2-3 million of that amount. 



A ceiling will be meaningless to an organization like the Pirates, and a floor will be meaningless to the large market franchises.  The best way to achieve equity is to require all 30 clubs to spend the same amount of money.






I agree that fixing MLB's gross inequity with regard to payroll would require extreme measures of change. In 2019 the lowest payroll spending team, The Rays, spent 28% of what the highest spending team, The Red Sox, spent on payroll. Compare that to the NHL which has both a Salary Cap and a Salary Floor in place which requires the lowest spending teams to spend no less than 74% of what the highest spending teams do.



While I agree with you that such a radical change would benefit MLB, leveling the competitive nature of the game, I doubt that such a thing can be accomplished all at once. I think it's more realistic, given the intransigence of MLB as an institution, that incremental changes could possibly happen toward that end rather than a revolutionary overhaul of the system all at once. With that in mind, MLB has already addressed (albeit weakly) a Salary Cap in the form of their Luxury Tax directed at the big spenders, but has yet to address the Salary Floor issue for teams such as the Pirates. I think given the dissatisfaction that some MLB execs have expressed in teams abusing the revenue sharing income that instituting a Salary Floor of some sort could have traction. At least it would be a small step in the right direction.

4F6B7F77721E0 wrote: To me, the only realistic way to establish equity among 30 different clubs is to set the payroll at a certain level and have all teams spend to within $2-3 million of that amount. 



A ceiling will be meaningless to an organization like the Pirates, and a floor will be meaningless to the large market franchises.  The best way to achieve equity is to require all 30 clubs to spend the same amount of money.






I agree that fixing MLB's gross inequity with regard to payroll would require extreme measures of change. In 2019 the lowest payroll spending team, The Rays, spent 28% of what the highest spending team, The Red Sox, spent on payroll. Compare that to the NHL which has both a Salary Cap and a Salary Floor in place which requires the lowest spending teams to spend no less than 74% of what the highest spending teams do.



While I agree with you that such a radical change would benefit MLB, leveling the competitive nature of the game, I doubt that such a thing can be accomplished all at once. I think it's more realistic, given the intransigence of MLB as an institution, that incremental changes could possibly happen toward that end rather than a revolutionary overhaul of the system all at once. With that in mind, MLB has already addressed (albeit weakly) a Salary Cap in the form of their Luxury Tax directed at the big spenders, but has yet to address the Salary Floor issue for teams such as the Pirates. I think given the dissatisfaction that some MLB execs have expressed in teams abusing the revenue sharing income that instituting a Salary Floor of some sort could have traction. At least it would be a small step in the right direction.




I'm sure you're right that such a measure won't happen over night. It might if the game is shut down for a season due to a strike or lockout, however. If that's what it took to make the system absolutely fair, I could live with that. Because, as it is right now, I don't see the Pirates ever winning another World Series with Bob Nutting as owner.



The owners currently have no incentive to change. The large market teams look at the luxury tax as a cost of doing business. They also know under the current arrangement that their teams will rarely ever have to compete with teams like the Pirates for the World Series. It's like they're playing in a league with 20 other teams rather than 30. And the small market owners, like Nutting, are fine with receiving free money in exchange for limiting their risk.