After an offseason that saw many teams reluctant to spend any money, some wonder if MLB should implement a salary floor, also known as a minimum amount of money you need to spend
Case for
Some people think just because a team is in a small market they can’t afford to pay players. This is simply not true. Even the least valuable baseball franchise, the Miami Marlins, is worth 1 billion dollars. Owners make tons of money and have no excuse to not spend money to put out a competent baseball team. Owners are cheaping out on roster building to increase their money flow.
Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon combine to make 63 million dollars. This season there are 5 teams who aren’t paying their entire roster 63 million dollars. How is a team suppose to be competitive if there owner’s aren’t willing to spend more than the salary of two superstars? As a fan how could you give your full support to a team that cares about money more than putting out a winning roster. With more than a 3rd of the leagues franchises spending less than 100 million on their team this year, it seems like MLB needs a salary floor to force these owners to build a competent team.
Case against
The main case against the salary floor is the concept of rebuilding. When you’re in a rebuild your team will be filled with mostly young players on cheap contracts. This doesn’t mean you aren’t trying to win this just means you’re looking at the long term plan instead of trying to win now. Should teams that are trying to develop young talent be forced to pay a certain amount for their team? This would force rebuilding teams to sign veteran free agents. These veteran free agents would just take up space on the team.
Another case against the salary floor is the power it would give to the players. Here’s an example, imagine a team is ten million dollars below the salary floor. This team wants to sign a free agent they’d normally only pay 5 million dollars per year. This free agent could use the salary floor against the team to get himself a bigger contract. He could say “You guys need ten million dollars to reach the salary floor so give it all to me or I’m not signing.” This could force teams hands into giving out bad contracts, which could possibly make the leagues competitive balance worse.
Fan opinion
Colonia Alumni Zac Mocci is a Yankee fan and a fan of baseball in general. Mocci believes that MLB should implement a salary floor. When Mocci was asked about implementing a salary floor he said “Oh yes 100 percent, because I’m pretty sure the pirates have an insanely low pay rate and its almost unfair for fans.” Mocci believes fans deserve better than cheap roster building. Mocci also said “I definitely think owners are being insanely cheap, trying to get high draft picks, for cheap, there is so much skill in the free agent market, and it some times get abused by other teams like the Dodgers, so there is definitely not a small market problem.” Mocci believes what many fans believe, owners are cheaping out for profit.
