10-10-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
One thing I think we’ve seen in the few short seasons with the new playoff format is that how you got there doesn’t matter.
Wild card who barely snuck in? So what. Division winner who lead their division from start to finish? Who cares. Have the biggest payroll in baseball, well, you might win, but it probably won’t be because you spent more than everyone else, it’ll be because you got extremely hot at the right time.
Let me stop you before you put on your Pirates Fan hat and convince yourself I’m trying to tell you it doesn’t matter what they spend. That’s not the point I’m making at all, instead I’m saying you’d be foolish to believe teams haven’t seen what has transpired since this all began.
The league made getting into the playoffs easier than it’s ever been, and further, they’ve made best of 3 series dictate the fortunes of the 4 teams who miss out on a bye, all while the two bye teams sit there getting rusty even as their eventual opponents get battle tested even more.
Look, this playoff could still very much so feature the Mets, Dodgers and Yankees in the final 4, so it’s not like the big spenders are hurting here, it’s just not as much of an advantage as it used to be.
The spending gives them more bites at the apple than the non-spenders, but once everyone has arrived at the farmers market, the apples are just as accessible for everyone who showed up.
The owners who don’t like to spend or can’t or won’t or whatever you want to believe, like Bob Nutting will take this all day long. Remember how they crowed about how great the Diamondback run was in 2023? It wasn’t just that they spent only marginally more than the Pirates, it certainly wasn’t admiration for how they built it. The reason for their enthusiasm was simply that a team that barely squeaked in made it all the way to the World Series.
It was proof that they didn’t need to build a perfect team, just a team that managed to win a little more than they lose during the regular season.
I’m not saying that’s the goal, of course teams would prefer to win 100 games and make the playoffs by winning their division, but if that difference from say 85 wins and 100 is 30 million worth of player payroll, let’s just say unless someone can prove the chance is like 75% lower to win it all, guess what most of these guys won’t want to do.
Other sports are like this too of course.
In the NFL 14 of the 32 teams make the playoffs, the NHL 16 of the 32, and the NBA 16 of 30, so MLB having 12 of their 30 make it is hardly uncommon.
MLB doesn’t have a salary cap though, so all of the low bar stuff we discussed for getting in, well, what would be their incentive for doing so in those other leagues? Everyone for the most part spends within 20-25 million of each other, you know, that’s how a cap system works.
I don’t know where all this leads, but I know so far it’s gone just about how many of us who really don’t want any new incentives for the frugal to act as such hoped it wouldn’t.
If baseball isn’t going to institute a cap system, maybe this is the best compromise, maybe making it easier to get into the dance is the best some of us can hope for.
Tell you what though, with the new CBA agreement coming up in 2027, I’d imagine the top spending teams who are funding all the low spending clubs with revenue sharing aren’t going to just sit back and enjoy watching their 300 million dollar squads getting taken down by 88 million dollar rosters who managed to find their way into the contest.
I’m enjoying the playoffs, and it won’t bother me one bit if a team like the Tigers manages to win it all with their low payroll. That said, there’s no denying a team like that winning is not likely to go unnoticed or without being answered.
If the Pirates manage to squeak in next year, trust me, I won’t cry about it being unfair, but I’m not a big market owner who likely paid for it, as well as their profits.
Steel City Pirates 