The Salary Cap Debate

The salary cap debate is starting to come backprobably would not be altered all that much from
out during the early days of spring training. Itseason to season. Teams can win with small
raises the obvious and good question; shouldpayrolls. Just look at the Rays from last year.
baseball have a salary cap? The purpose of thisThey won 97 games while having the second
article is not to take sides, but to explore somelowest payroll in the majors. They lost to the
of the arguments of both sides. If there was aPhillies in the 2008 World Series and the Phillies had
salary cap, what are some of the implications?the 13th highest payroll.
Well the main argument behind the salary cap isJust because a team spends more money than
that it would almost completely eliminate thethe next definitely does not mean that they will
distance between the big market teams (I.e. thewin more games. If it's not broke don't fix it. The
Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers) and the smallsalary cap has worked out since baseball was
market teams (I.e. the Brewers, Marlins, Royals,created. Sure the Yankees have many more
Nationals). I believe that the salary cap wouldchampionships than any other team but they
really help in this regard. It does not seem fairhave not won this decade because of the amount
that the Yankees can spend more in one freeof parity there is in the game now. You can look
agency period on three players than most teamsat the most recent seasons and you can see that
have in their entire payroll. The reason thethere is not necessarily an overly significant
Yankees are able to spend all of that money iscorrelation between payroll and success of a
because they can essentially charge any priceteam. I am not saying that the Yankees would be
they want for their tickets because their fans arejust as good as they are now if they spent $100
so numerous and loyal.million less in a year. What I am saying is that
Meanwhile the Florida Marlins have a payroll aroundteams like the Marlins and Twins can be
$23 Million as of the 2008 season (ESPN.com) andsuccessful with the right mix of scouting and
are still having trouble making money. The T.V.coaching. If these teams can pluck out the young
contracts that the Yankees have are far moretalent amongst the minor league programs of the
available and valuable than in a market like KansasMLB teams and then coach them to their ability
City or Minnesota. The MLBPA and the owners ofthey should have a great chance at success.
the teams have somewhat recently agreed toThis is the model that the Marlins have followed
revenue sharing. This means that teams like thesince I can remember. They engage in a fire sale
Yankees and Mets put more money into thisof their biggest stars after they achieve a great
program than the Marlins or Royals. This hasamount of success. They get a ton of prospects
helped even the playing field (no pun intended) aand talented young players in the trades and they
little bit but there are still large gaps between thebasically just coach them and get them some
most successful and the least successful teams.experience for a couple years. They then bring
Another possible positive effect of a salary cap isthem up to the majors and wind up winning their
the decrease in ticket prices. If the MLB imposesway to a playoff spot. We could see this formula
a salary cap around $90 million which is near thepan out as early as this year and definitely next
median payroll amount in the majors, prices willseason as well. There is enough parity in the
probably drop for everything related to a teamMajor Leagues nowadays to offset some of the
that previously paid out more than $90 million ainequalities of some of the teams' markets. I
year. Ticket prices could drop as well ashonestly do not think that the salary cap debate
merchandise and parking.is that big of an issue. The game will still be very
The decrease in pricing could result in an increasesuccessful just as it is now regardless of whether
in fan base for teams as well as an increase inor not there is a salary cap. I do not think that
attendance league wide. Those are just a couplejust because there is a limit on how much players
reasons behind the push for a salary cap. One ofcan get paid that the game will suffer.
the reasons, at least from my perspective, of notAlso, it would be almost impossible to just switch
introducing a salary cap is the amount of parity into a salary cap with the length and amount of the
the league. You can compare the winningcontracts that are out there. How do you impose
percentages of the best and worst baseballa salary cap provision on a 10 year $250 million
teams and you will see those percentages arecontract? That is one of the many hurdles the
around the first and last place teams in otherMLB would have to overcome in order to institute
sports that have salary caps. In fact if youthis salary cap. Not to mention how difficult it is
compare last place teams in the MLB last seasongoing to be to get the MLBPA to sign off on a
to last place teams in the NBA last season thesalary cap given the amount of money players
worst MLB teams have higher winningcan make in today's market. It is a debate that
percentages than the worst NBA teams. Grantedhas been going on for a long time and I am sure
it is hard to compare a sport that has 82 gameswe have not heard the last report about talks of
to a sport that has 162 but the percentagesa salary cap being instituted in baseball.