It’s the off-season again and for fans of the Guardians, it appears to be another long winter waiting for the front office to make a move. We have all followed the Juan Soto free agency and what appears to be a race between the Red Sox and Mets for a price that Cleveland could only dream of being able to offer a player. Yesterday, we saw the defending champion Dodgers add another high-priced arm to their rotation, getting former Cy Young Award-winning Blake Snell for five years, $182 million.
Once again, the Guardians are left in the dust and the hope of the fans is that the Guardians sign Albert Belle or Cliff Lee in their current state to a one-year contract in hopes of bringing back the glory days of a past-their-prime player.
The biggest struggle with the Guardians and other small-market teams is the TV deal that is crushing these teams. Bally Sports, now FanDuel Sports Network, has given up on the Guardians, Reds and other teams in MLB. As an example, the AL Central teams bring a grand total of $274 million from TV revenue, with the Guardians right in the middle of $55 million. In contrast, the Dodgers alone bring in $196 million, the Yankees $143 million. There is a reason why teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Angels and others are able to spend above and beyond.
This is why we need a salary cap in baseball. We know that it will never happen, but until it does, teams like the Dodgers, Rangers, Yankees and other big-market teams are going to rule over MLB. In 1994, they tried and failed. Every work stoppage that has happened in baseball has been due to an attempt to create a salary cap. The players don’t want it because people like Ohtani and Soto are able to get these ridiculous contracts and teams like the Guardians, Royals and Reds are going to suffer the consequences.
There aren’t many players in the game like José Ramírez, who is the best third baseman in the game. One of the best all-around players with speed, power and knowledge of how to play the game the right way. Something that sets José apart from all these other players is the fact that he is loyal. There is no such thing as loyalty in the game anymore. José took less money to play for the team that gave him the chance. Soto is potentially going to be playing for his fourth team, Ohtani is on his second and Snell’s fourth since 2016. Meanwhile, José Ramírez chose to stay with the team that gave him his opportunity, and they are both being rewarded. The issue with this is that there are no more players like José Ramírez.
So aside from the loyalty aspect of the game disappearing, what can be done? Could a salary cap help baseball? Yeah, it would most definitely, but it will never happen in our lifetime. A new media deal would be the next best thing that we could get to bring some sort of parity to the game. The same amount of income from the media rights would give everyone a fighting chance. It doesn’t have to be like the NFL where the big four, Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN/ABC show the games, but something similar to what baseball is already doing with the Padres and Diamondbacks and soon-to-be Guardians and Reds. MLB-produced games are provided to the local markets with zero blackouts. Give the locals the ability to watch the games for their local teams for free and keep MLB.TV and Extra Innings for those who want to watch out-of-market games.
Doing this would eliminate the massive disparity in revenue that the Yankees and Dodgers are able to get away with and give the Guardians and other teams a fighting chance. Then, as a penalty for these teams having these insane contracts for players such as Ohtani and Judge, they are still going to owe them the money that they signed them for with a decrease in media revenue. They have other forms of income that they can use to cover things, but the media deals are what is going to be at the heart of bringing parity to the game again.
Obviously, this is a pipe dream, to say the least. These teams in New York, Los Angeles and other major markets would blow a gasket if this was ever brought to the table. We can only hope that one day, common sense will prevail and we can bring a level playing field back to the game.
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