Baseball is unique in the world of American Sports because it is the only sport to not have a salary cap for teams. This causes teams to be both very cheap and very generous in the money they give out. The New York Mets this year will have a payroll of over 340 million dollars while the Oakland Athletics will only have a payroll of just over 62 million dollars. This large difference in payroll is caused by the way owners manage their teams. Some teams like the Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees are in larger markets thus allowing them to make more money. But teams like the Pirates, A’s, and Rays have much smaller markets causing them to make less money. MLB has tried to solve this problem through revenue sharing between the teams to try and allow the smaller markets to compete in the league. But this has had the opposite effect as many small market owners have found out that this extra check can just be pocketed and saved.
This has caused the smaller teams to just want to put a team out on the field no matter how good they are just so they can collect that check from the shared revenue. This has caused many of the owners to not spend much on the roster and facilities of the team to minimize the costs. This puts even more money into their pockets as they collect the collective revenue and the money coming in from the team. This is why teams like the Athletics, Reds, Guardians, Nationals, and Pirates have trouble having consistent teams. They refuse to pay their good players and when they are about to enter free agency, they trade them for prospects or hold onto them and lose them in free agency.
Only a handful of teams like the Rays and Guardians can compete in the league because they have some of the best coaches in baseball that allow their players to play to their strengths. But these teams have never been true juggernauts in the league because they constantly need to find new players to plug the holes in their teams.
On the other side of the coin, you have teams like the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, and Mets who have a ton of money due to the market they are in. This is why, when you see a major free agent in baseball, they will usually go to one of the bigger markets because they will be paid more than the smaller teams. These teams enjoy the ability to go out and spend on their team allowing them to not only rely on their farm systems but also players out on the market. This creates a team in which you can have a bond with players. Think about good teams. They have good marketable players on their team. Take the Dodgers for example, they have Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, and others. Not only do they have these players but they also have them for the next 5+ years allowing the fan base to be excited about going to the games because they have a chance to see these players play.
But teams like the A’s, Rays, and Royals have to sell off their good players and rarely can extend them long-term. This causes fans to not buy jerseys or merchandise for these players because they will only be on the team for a certain amount of time. If any veterans or older players break out, they will be traded away as fast as they can because their value to other teams is at its highest and they can be traded for better prospects.
These major differences in ownership affect players, fans, and the whole league. Teams that go out and spend on players are seen as a team that wants to win by their fan bases and the league because they are making an effort to make their team better both in the short term and for the future. These teams grow their fan bases by bringing more people to the ballpark and giving people more of a reason to watch. This helps the league as a whole because it brings more people to the game allowing for more advertising money and more tickets sold. Bringing in more money for both the team and the league.
When the league makes more money it allows teams to spend more money on stadiums, players, and other facilities. Owners have to understand that putting money into their team is important and it is not an expense but an investment. This would allow teams to be worth even more money allowing them to be sold for even more money when they want to sell. Growth in any sports league ultimately is decided by the willingness of owners to invest in their respective teams and leagues.
