Professor Streetz is back in the lab and ready to teach a new class. This time we are fixing Major League Baseball! Now don’t get wrong, baseball is still my all time favorite sport, but it’s no secret my love has weathered over time. It’s not the same nostalgic fueled passion that I once had. The NFL is just a more exciting product and year round soap opera.
Before we dig into “the how”, let’s start with what is wrong. Below is a list of the main bullet points for me.
- Lack of salary cap- deferred contracts.
- Stars staying in their cities.
- Pace of game/Style of game.
- Free agency duration.
Now that my main issues are listed, let’s dive in one by one.
First up is salary cap and salary structure. Dodgers are the new evil empire. You know exactly what they are doing. While I do agree some owners have been cheap, the Dodgers just have a lot more cheddar than anyone else to use. Financial inequality is growing to nuclear levels. The Dodgers TV deal awards them $334 million. They have the advantage before any gate revenue is even added. Just down the road, in the same exact state, the Padres are not even making a quarter of that in their TV deal.
RSN’s are a mess. Cubs have their own Marquee Network and some say they are not making what they had hoped to as well. Every week we see RSN’s continue to fight with cable networks and other streaming services. The Atlanta Braves are a publicly traded entity, this means we can see their books. While I don’t understand all the verbiage and numbers, I do understand they still operated at a $39 million dollar loss. It’s time to depart from the fantasyland train you are on if you think all teams can do what the top 5-7 do. Can they do more? Absolutely, but your market size should not matter in regards to the competitive balance of the league.
So step 1, MLB will redistribute all net revenue more evenly. Currently the richer teams share 31% of local net revenue. Through this the Miami Marlins were awarded $70 million dollars for the upcoming season. We will have to increase the 31% to assure teams can afford their salary cap floor which I will lay out next.
This would all be more similar to the NBA model..
Once that is settled, my idea is simply a hard cap of $200 million a year and a floor of $130 million a year. This allows a little bonus for the teams that simply make more money.
Next up is rookies.
Plan is less control of time spent in minor leagues. You get 3 years maximum for everyone. Then a decision has to be made to be added to the 26 man roster or enter a new version of the “Rule 5 Draft”.
The 40 man roster is eliminated here.
Anyone selected in the Rule 5 Draft will get a base salary and a major league contract. The rest will be cleared through waivers to return to their teams farm system for one more year. If they are not called up after that, they are now free agents. In free agency they can then be signed to an MLB deal or two way deal, similar to the G league in the NBA. A two way deal will allow teams a window again to roster in minors and call players up. Arbitration would be abolished and we will move to a rookie contract system. System will use variable metrics to increase value each year. This system will also award the faster you are called up then the longer the contract can be. It will be a 4 year max for anyone called up in 2 years or less, or 3 year max for anyone called up after the 3 year deadline. This will assure everyone gets a chance at a max deal in their mid 20’s. Options are gone. Once the rookie deal is signed you can move them up and down as needed. The contract will also count on your cap however.
Once you hit free agency only the team you are currently rostered on can offer you a super max contract up to 8 years and a higher percentage of the teams salary cap without being penalized. If electing a new team you will be limited to a lesser length of 5 years and the team will not receive any percentage of cap relief. This is similar to the NBA’s structure and means players will make substantially more staying on their teams. It will also award the team more flexibility for doing so. No deferred payments allowed anymore. This should all help keep stars in their cities.
Now to fix the last step. Free agency time period. NBA and NFL free agency is a frenzy of 2 days. It’s must-see TV and constant refreshing of social media. So MLB will also adopt a similar system in which players will have a week to sign and anything that extends past the week will begin to limit what they can sign for. All the way down to only being able to sign a 1 year deal if a month passes.
All of these changes will not benefit the top 1% of MLB baseball players who get record breaking contracts, like the Juan Soto’s of the world. These changes will however help the middle class of the free agent pool, and like the NBA they will begin to make substantially higher AAV’s.
Now lastly, the game on the field. We are headed in the right direction. Speed is improving with pitch clocks and we have seen more base stealing. My simple additions will be robot umps and 6 inning minimums for starting pitchers. No more openers! With the exception of getting rocked, throwing 100 pitches, or getting hurt all which allows a pitching change.
A more competitive league should offset some of the need for major rule changes.
If you are still here, I hope you liked my long winded plan. It’s not perfect but there is no perfect solution. It is a step in the right direction and there is
