{"id":2912,"date":"2008-12-23T22:11:04","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T03:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=2912"},"modified":"2008-12-23T22:11:04","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T03:11:04","slug":"time-for-a-baseball-salary-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2008\/12\/time-for-a-baseball-salary-cap\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for a Baseball Salary Cap?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today, sources say that the New York Yankees signed free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira to a whopping eight-year contract totaling $180 million.\u00a0 Teixeira is arguably the best non-pitcher free agent on the market (one could make an argument for Manny Ramirez, but it seems the market has focused more on Teixeira first).\u00a0 This signing comes on the heels of the Yankees signing CC Sabathia to a seven-year contract worth $161 million and A.J. Burnett to a five-year contract worth $82.5 million.\u00a0 Sabathia was hands-down the elite free agent pitcher, and Burnett was considered the second- or third-best free agent pitcher (depending on whether you ranked Derek Lowe above or below Burnett).\u00a0 That’s an extraordinary $423.5 million on three guys, all in the last month.\u00a0 And the Yankees got all three of them — three of the top five free agents on the market. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, just because the Yankees are spending money like drunken sailors does not mean they will win.\u00a0 Indeed, even with these signings, it appears that the Yankees may wind up with a smaller payroll than last year (when they failed to make the playoffs), when it stood at $222.2 million.\u00a0 In fact, the Yankees’ payroll may wind up south of $200 million.\u00a0 But this situation still strikes me as problematic for the longevity of Major League Baseball (MLB), especially in small- or mid-size markets. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It leads to a debate which may be worth revisiting: That is, should MLB adopt a salary cap?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The NBA has a soft salary cap — where teams can only sign players under limited conditions and for limited salaries if they exceed the salary cap.\u00a0 The NFL has a hard salary cap, where teams cannot exceed the salary cap (and thus must shed contracts to get under the threshold). \u00a0<\/p>\n

The NFL model is more difficult, as MLB contracts are guaranteed for the most part, while NFL contracts are not.\u00a0 However, the NBA model may hold more promise.\u00a0 The NBA model has arguably led to more parity in the league and created a situation where — or at least the perception that — even small market teams (see San Antonio) can compete consistently for the playoffs and even championships.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Or is the solution a different revenue-sharing approach for MLB to enable smaller market teams to spend more on their payrolls?\u00a0 Or should we leave things as they are and let the market sort it all out, even if that leads to smaller market teams moving to greener pastures or, more likely, some contraction in the market with the result being fewer MLB clubs? \u00a0<\/p>\n

I doubt anything will change, as the MLB Players Union has made it clear it will not agree to a salary cap.\u00a0 And while there have been positive changes in the revenue sharing in MLB, one wonders how much further the MLB Players Union or the more successful teams’ owners will be willing to go.\u00a0 But it strikes me that MLB cannot continue to have a handful of teams scooping up all of the elite free agents because they can afford to spend with near reckless abandon and thus price most other teams out of the market (see the Milwaukee Brewers’ seemingly competitive offer to Sabathia of five years for $100 million).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

It is true that smaller market teams like the Florida Marlins have won championships recently (and the Tampa Bay Rays almost did this year) and teams like the Oakland A’s seem to compete for divisional championships and\/or the playoffs pretty consistently.\u00a0 But these tend to be the exceptions, while the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Anaheim Angels (I refuse to call them L.A., they’re 50 miles south of L.A.) seem to be in contention every year because of their ability to outspend other teams.\u00a0 To be sure, spending money does not always lead to success — see the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers last year, the teams with the two highest payrolls this past season — but it seems to disproportionately tip the scales in favor of those handful of teams.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

It is the perhaps the magical essence of baseball that fans think that their team can win every year.\u00a0 But if parity cannot be maintained, will this hopefulness cease?\u00a0 And if so, what result? \u00a0<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, sources say that the New York Yankees signed free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira to a whopping eight-year contract totaling $180 million.\u00a0 Teixeira is arguably the best non-pitcher free agent on the market (one could make an argument for Manny Ramirez, but it seems the market has focused more on Teixeira first).\u00a0 This signing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}