Whenever I was asked the question, as a Yankees fan, whether
I would care if Major League Baseball instituted a salary cap I always claimed
that I would be all for it. Much like we see in the NFL or the NBA year after
year there are always those one or two veterans who have always wanted to play
for (fill in the blank) or are chasing a championship ring or trophy who sign
for the league minimum. There are also the players who are willing to take less
money and restructure their contracts to bring in or keep another player a la
Peyton Manning or Tom Brady which are all factors that I think would help the
Yankees still “get their man” while playing within the rules. Then I got
rethinking the whole salary cap thing with the new collective bargaining
agreement expiring after the 2016 season.
First and foremost why would you want to fix what isn’t
broken? Major League Baseball has been flourishing in attendance, television
deals etc. for quite a few years now with loads of young talent and money
flooding the game right now. Why mess with that by forcing a team like the Los
Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees or other high market teams to carry lesser players
just to save a few bucks here or there? Also, why bankrupt (for lack of a
better word) teams like the Miami Marlins and the Tampa Bay Rays who aren’t lighting
$100 bills in their fireplace all winter long to stay warm because with any
sort of salary cap comes a salary floor as well.
Player salaries are down across the board in Major League
Baseball believe it or not from a high of 56% of all revenue being paid to
players in 2002 down to 38% as recent as 2014. These rates will continue to go
down as you see fewer and fewer Alex Rodriguez type mega contracts and more and
more reliance on young studs and rookies, not to mention new television deals
like the St. Louis Cardinals just signed for an easy $1 BILLION.
The Yankees would continue to win with or without the salary
cap simply because of the team’s popularity and such not only domestically
about around the world. The problem here is that I think the league would lose
in the long run with a salary cap so let’s hope the owners and MLB Players
Association pass on that before 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)