Baseball’s financial leaks, how MLB should respond
Major League Baseball may have just gotten into a position where they don’t want to be. It turns out that owners can become rich off of struggling teams. Owners can essentially choose whether they want to operate for profit or for championships.
In light of the financial documents that were recently leaked, a dark secret has been revealed, taking away yet more integrity from the game, possibly more than any steroid scandal could do. Financial documents from some of the league’s struggling teams were exposed. These documents revealed that teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Florida Marlins were making large profits despite having losing teams due to how little they spent on players’ salaries.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been on a losing streak. The team has had 18 straight losing seasons so you’d think they’d be in financial trouble, right? Wrong; the Pirates made a profit but the team never got better, the reason being that the team never spent enough money to build a winning team. Luckily they have loyal fans who have continued to support the team even though they may be the worst sports franchise in America right now.
Former Pirates who have now become stars in other teams have said that indeed the Pirates never spent enough money to build a winning ball club. Jose Bautista leads the majors in home runs this season playing for the Toronto Blue Jays and said that while in Pittsburgh, he felt the team was never given a chance to win.
When Bautista was a Pirate in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, the Pirates turned a profit of over $29 million in US dollars while they dismantled their team full of young talent. President Frank Coonelly claims that the club has tried to build a winner through draft picks, scouting and player development, but that has never produced a winner. The system hasn’t worked because once the promising young stars were beginning to come into their own and earn a bigger salary, they’d be shipped away.
“We had a great team on the field. We felt like we could have benefited from improving our pitching staff,” Bautista said. “They went with rookies on the pitching staff and that wasn't necessarily a recipe for success. We thought that we could have benefited from getting a couple of good veterans, proven major league starting pitchers. They didn't feel the need to go out and spend that money. For whatever reason, they decided not to and we lost a lot of games.”
The Pirates kept letting go of future stars and current stars, never truly letting the team gel together. Among those stars were Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, Matt Capps, Nate McLouth and Bautista.
The payrolls throughout those seasons were among the lowest in the league. Coonelly said the roster was too aged to contend, but there was no player over 29 years old. The Pirates major problem was their starting pitching. All but one of their pitchers were unproven rookies. While the team had a good line-up, they never put in the effort to acquire solid pitchers, a must in baseball nowadays.
While the team suffered on the field, the franchise was still profiting, leading many to believe now that MLB should enforce rules and make teams spend a minimum amount on players in order to establish a competitive balance in the league.
These leaked documents can lead to many possibilities. Fans that are now aware of this may stop supporting these teams until a serious effort is made to build a winner. We saw how it affected the Montreal Expos after the 1994 strike as they traded away their stars one by one to save money. It doomed the franchise as they lost support from fans and moved to Washington to become the Nationals in 2005.
In light of this evidence there may be similar consequences with teams like the Pirates, the Florida Marlins and other small-market teams whose owners have shown more of a commitment to money than championships. After the Marlins won a World Series, they essentially did the same thing, letting stars leave and making no effort to retain the core of their championship winning teams.
If this is the case Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball must do what is right for the game. A minimum amount of money to spend should be enforced on teams. Teams should have an equal opportunity to succeed and the hierarchy of baseball has remained the same for too long. It’s time for a change and it’s time for 30 teams to have an equal chance of winning a championship. If there’s any integrity left in the majors then it must be shown. Give the players and fans what they deserve.
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