As expected, the Dodgers and Padres are the two teams that exceeded the luxury tax threshold this past season. The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles will pay $32.65MM in fees, while the Padres’ tax penalty lands at a more modest $1.29MM. No other teams exceeded the threshold in 2021.
Neither the Dodgers nor the Padres exceeded the threshold in 2020. Under the terms of the 2016-21 collective bargaining agreement, teams were only subject to escalating penalties for exceeding in consecutive years. Thus, both teams will be treated as first-time payors this offseason.
Teams are only subject to penalties on the dollars they spend above the threshold. The 2021 penalties for first-time payors checked in at 20% on every dollar between $210MM and $230MM, 32% on overages between $230MM and $250MM and 62.5% on each dollar spent above $250MM. CBT figures are calculated by summing the average annual values of all of a team’s player contracts (plus benefits), not by looking at a team’s actual payrolls in a given season.
As their hefty tax suggests, the Dodgers were by far the game’s biggest spender in 2021. Los Angeles’ final luxury tax number checked in at $285.6MM. (Their tax payment is calculated as the sum of $4MM on their overages between $210MM – $230MM, $6.4MM on their overages between $230MM – $250MM and $22.25MM on their overages above $250MM). The Dodgers flexed that financial might to build a star-studded roster that went to the NL Championship Series.
By exceeding $250MM, the Dodgers also accepted a minor hit in next year’s amateur draft. Teams that exceeded the highest tax threshold in the previous CBA saw their top choice moved back ten spots in the ensuing Rule 4 draft. Instead of picking 30th overall next season as originally scheduled, they’ll first select at pick No. 40.
While the Dodgers shattered the luxury mark, the Padres very narrowly exceeded the first threshold. Their final ledger checked in at $216.5MM, the highest mark in franchise history. San Diego’s financial cost for doing so is minuscule, but surpassing the threshold would be of more import were they to sign a free agent who has been tagged with a qualifying offer. Teams that pay any CBT penalties are subject to the highest levels of draft pick and international signing bonus forfeiture for signing qualified free agents. Exceeding the tax also reduces the compensation teams receive when one of their own qualified free agents signs elsewhere; this winter, the Dodgers received the lowest possible compensation (a pick after the fourth round) for watching Corey Seager depart.
As mentioned, the previous CBA contained escalating penalties for teams that exceeded the threshold in multiple consecutive years. It’s not clear whether that process will continue with the next CBA (or where the thresholds will land in the next CBA) but most high-revenue teams have occasionally determined to dip back under the threshold to “reset” their tax bracket and dodge escalating penalties.
That makes the Padres’ decision to narrowly exceed the threshold and potentially shoulder escalating penalties in future years a bit atypical. A handful of teams settled their spending limits just below the $210MM mark. According to the AP, each of the Phillies, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Astros ended with payrolls less than $5MM below the first tax threshold. They’ll each be first-time payors if they exceed that mark in 2022, with the Yankees and Astros resetting after exceeding the threshold in 2020. (The Cubs also exceeded the threshold in 2020 but didn’t come especially close to $210MM in 2021).
The AP also reports that overall spending on players took a step back. The combined tally of all thirty teams’ luxury tax payrolls this past season tallied $4.52 billion, down from the $4.71 billion teams spent in 2019. That’s not entirely surprising on the heels of a 2020 campaign with essentially no gate revenues, although it’s the lowest overall expenditures on players since 2016’s $4.51 billion.
Chipper Jones' illegitimate kid
TAX THE RICH!!!
Edit: Sorry, wrong site
bucsfan0004
Only way to stop inflation is to tax the middle class.
The Baseball Fan
Only way to stop inflation is to move production back to America
MTDewdWV
Right. If American labor was making all of consumer items you enjoy every day, prices would absolutely skyrocket, creating further inflation. Someone has to suffer for Americans to get their s***. You can guarantee the capital behind production will refuse to lose profits to both pay American wages and make products remotely affordable. You need the global economy.
Sabermetric Acolyte
The only way to solve all the worlds economics questions is to try to talk about them on a baseball forum.
Jean Matrac
Sabermetric Acolyte:
I think baseball fans must be like economists, since it’s said, that if you took all the economists in the world, and laid then end to end, they wouldn’t reach an agreement.
SheaGoodbye
“You can guarantee the capital behind production will refuse to lose profits to both pay American wages and make products remotely affordable.”
Key statement right here. In a perfect world, they would accept less profits and any increases to consumers would be on the milder side. But we all know that’s never going to happen.
Sabermetric Acolyte
Tad, have you ever heard the joke of the three statisticians who go hunting? The first one aims and misses his target by 5 feet to the right. The second one aims and misses the same target by 5 feet to the left. The third one proclaims “We hit it!”
I tend to think when you get a bunch of people together arguing politics or economics they end up being the the third statistician. They’re either full of themselves or full of something else.
deweybelongsinthehall
The middle class couldn’t afford most things if everything was made here. Quality “might” go up but what good is it to only dream of owning the same sneakers as the pros wear ..oh wait that is the case today. $2k sneakers? I thought my dad was having a heart attack when he gave me $25 for my Superstars in 1975.
JoeBrady
In a perfect world, they would accept less profits
================================
60M with 401k’s, many more with 403b’s, wouldn’t like that. Nor would the folks that are going to pay my pensions.
stymeedone
@joebrady
What’s a pension?
JoeBrady
Sty-
From Lohud:
“Of the 39 police officers retiring from the department this year, 26 will be receiving annual pensions of more than $100,000.”
Nobody even knows how many cops in NYS are earning $100k in pension benefits each year. And a lot earn them at age 55. There is some likelihood that a lot of cops will earn more in pension than salary.
One of my associates takes credit for the scheme. The police know every place drugs are sold. They arrest someone on a Friday afternoon, knowing it will take hours to process them. Collect 5 hours OT, hit the local pub at 10:00. Save your sick and vacation, cash them in in your retirement year, and retire to Florida at age 55.
Now that’s a pension.
User 4245925809
Oh my.. If u mean a type of income tax.. Lincoln, whom have mentioned here before is responsible for those and it was supposed to be temporary and end when his war was over. Yet we see and understand how elected officials grow used to other people’s money and will not let go and it became a permanent cash cow then.
Taxes, as in most used to be handled by individual states. Government would tax inbound goods, few other, but kept it’s greedy fingers out of the citizens pockets until early 1860’s. High time it ended and that went back to individual states, then would see few less blow hards in DC clamoring about everything free.
Chipper Jones' illegitimate kid
His name is cryptonerd. What are you expecting?
TurnOffTheTV
The only way to stop inflation is to quit printing money.
Tax the middle class??
That’s a laugh.
The middle class pays ALL of the taxes.
Captain Dunsel
The best way to stop inflation is to stop using rubber tires.
paddyo furnichuh
Tires are still rubber even if they are not pneumatic tires. But I like your play on words.
Softball Mike
Tax the billionaires, leave the middle class alone. Or do away with income taxes altogether, and have a national sales tax.
Brew’88
In the end, the ecological economy will trickle down upon our carcasses
PoloGrounds62
National sales tax, better known as “user fees” is the only equitable way for a government to collect revenue. Every other method is nothing more than legalized theft.
Jean Matrac
johnsilver:
You need to get your history straight, because it’s not as you say. The income tax imposed during the Civil War was not retained at the end of the war. It wasn’t until the 1890’s that a peacetime income tax was instituted by Congress. It was part of a tariff reduction bill and was intended to compensate for revenue lost from lower tariffs. It didn’t last because SCOTUS ruled it unconstitutional. It wasn’t until 1913, when the 16th amendment to the Constitution, made it permanent.
Jean Matrac
johnsilver:
Plus, moving revenue collection back to the states would have a huge, negative impact on poorer states. Less wealthy states like Mississippi get more in federal funds than what they pay in federal taxes. It’s the reverse of places like California that pay more than they get back.
It’s why (and I realize this is politically incorrect to say), that states like Mississippi vote against their own best interests. They are a red state that votes for the party that always wants to cut taxes. But studies have shown that when Federal taxes go down, state and local taxes increase to make up the difference necessary for services people rely on.
That hurts the poorer states, since they get less federal funding, and benefits the rich ones, because they’re sending less to the feds. Eliminating the federal income tax, and putting the complete burden on the states would only exacerbate an already difficult situation for places like Mississippi that don’t have enough now to address many of their problems.
Not to dump on Mississippi, but they are the poorest state in the Union, with low literacy rates, etc, and I for one think the government should be doing more for Mississippi, and other poor states, not less.
User 4245925809
tad2b13,
Appreciate the info and will chk myself. college was many-a decade ago for myself and admit memory slips over time. ACW period was never a strongpoint, but did study more than most back then, however admit may have been incorrect.
Will disagree with those who use the rich state/poor state theory on who pays and who takes. A state, u used Mississippi as an example.. Will adapt it’s budget knowing it has no unknown cash cow and certain states, with horrid budgets would almost certainly never have gotten that way in the 1st place had the “everything piled into a kitty” to be disbursed methodology been started.
It was ripe for abuse from the beginning.
Jean Matrac
I respect your right to disagree, but it is a fact that rich states pay out more than they get back, and poor states get back more, not a theory.
But I realize, how the money is used is a complex issue, and not as simple as it looks. Some states aren’t going to put the money into needed issues like education. But, overall, I think a plan that winds up making poor states being even poorer is not a good one.
Please, Hammer. Don't hurt 'em.
Taxing productivity (aka income) is stupid. Taxing spending would be smarter. Too bad our government doesn’t like that because they don’t want to pay double for their Rolls Royce. Income is badass and shouldn’t be taxed. Spending is frequently stupid and should be taxed to hell if anything is.
DarkSide830
the best way to do it is just not print more money because it doesnt need to be done.
deweybelongsinthehall
Of course that’s correct. Just look to the start of COVID when NY was hammered before many red states. It was the argument made against McConnell as to KY getting more and more each year while NY had been a constant payer.
deweybelongsinthehall
Printing money is being done around the globe due to COVID as most countries are in the same pickle. if/when this ends, there will be a huge price to pay.
JoeBrady
“everything piled into a kitty” to be disbursed methodology been started.
=====================================
That’s my objection to the various infrastructure bills. Local projects should be paid for by local taxes. If the money is in a pool in DC, everyone will want their roads re-paved, whether they need it or not. If my neighbors and I have to pay to re-pave our streets, they will only get re-paved when they need it.
There is a case for some projects (airports, ‘some’ bridges, the power grid) to be nationalized, but if we all had to pay for our own projects, the process would be less wasteful.
PoloGrounds62
Income taxes weren’t law until 1913. It was the 16th Amendment. Lincoln was dead. Stick to baseball.
emac22
Because crashing the economy is better than inflation?
Do people not realize inflation is how a free market increases production?
Did they forget production crashed because of the pandemic?
Do they think it’s better to take money from the middle class instead of having them spend it?
Do they think poor people get higher wages without inflation?
You guys need to think this stuff through. Avoiding inflation via lower wages and higher taxes shrinks your economy and leaves everyone poorer.
We need to allow inflation to encourage production growth and higher wages so that we can tax everyone instead of supporting millions in poverty so they can provide cheap labor for the wealthy.
Grow the economy instead of taxing the people who can’t afford it right after the wealthy get a 2 trillion tax cut and record setting profits during the pandemic.
It’s astounding how little people know about economics and psychology. Taxing the middle class to reduce inflation takes the worst ideas from sports and just brings them into the real world.
SDHotDawg
Y’all need to read some Milton Friedman.
UKPhil
I much prefer JK Galbraith. Now there’s a great American!!!
fljay73
Individual states taxing inbound goods?
The very first Constitution was setup that way.
That’s why we have the Constitution that we have now.
Higher taxes discourages work?
How do you explain the economy from after WW2 to before Regean?
Unions had their highest membership, the minimum wage was raised a few times a decade & top tax rates/tax codes encouraged investment in workers (aka apprenticeship jobs etc). Housing & cars were more affordable for the working class & cities/towns had manufacturing as a economic backbone. Stop blaming workers for the issues & realize the money since Regean onward has been going to the 1% (example- the huge increase in Billionaires since).
SDHotDawg
Work is a necessity to eat and live. Taxes are parasitic.
Where is all of this Socialist thinking coming from?
libertyfighter
Under the stellar leadership of Governor Newsom, California will one day be the poorest state in the union. Why stop at having the highest poverty [California] rate in the Union.
libertyfighter
Actually don’t read Milton, try some Ludwig Von Mises or Murray Rothbard instead.
libertyfighter
Are you serious? What part of the highest tax rate over 70% encouraged workers? The tax rates in the 60’s and 70’s were confiscatory.
SDHotDawg
@liberty … Let’s not forget the related impact of 13% interest rates. The middle class was in de facto survival mode in the late 70’s.
tigw
dems
joew
johnsilver:
the tax rate argument to compare federal benefits is a poor one. there are many bench marks here. If you where to go through most of them you would likely find that the comparison would likely be more close to even with red states generally having more Liberty for their citizens and blue states having some restrictions on. just a generalization that is usually truer than not.
California also receives the most back as well. 39m people with a median income of 65K will pay a lot more than 3m people with a median income of 40k. California is one of if not the highest cost of living states where Mississippi is one of if not the lowest cost of living states.
Keep going and you’ll find out some where California looks better… and going through a lot of it, it is probably more even than not depending on your bias.
so, voting against their interest.. You could say California is too just on different bench marks.
JAMES JACOBSEN
From “Ten Years After” 1971 “Id Love to Change The World”
claude raymond
I would love to as well James, but I don’t know what to do, so I’ll leave it up to you. BTW. the greatest hits album? As good as it gets.
citizen
When did this site become Quora.
DarkSide830
the emails I get from Quora (which i need to stop getting) suggest that most questions asked on that site are utterly stupid.
bleeding_blue_138
I agree that some of the questions on quota are stupid. But I can also say that there are a bunch of random questions too. Like, who would even think to ask that? Sometime I feel like posted question is by the person who answers the random question just to stroke their ego.
bleeding_blue_138
*Quora (dumb auto correct)
deweybelongsinthehall
Don’t you hate when that happens? Only benefit us occasionally there’s a built in excuse when the brain farts…
Ryan W
I wasn’t expecting to get a history of US tax lesson on this site today. I miss the Hot Stove
Deadguy
It’s eat the rich, why else is OSHA investigating Amazon for that factory collapse in Illinois? Bezos gonna pay for his workers getting nasty in the parking lot
SDHotDawg
Because OSHA always investigates large scale industrial accidents.
Braves Butt-Head
The Mets are gonna have to give up their 1st born next year lol
Cap & Crunch
Did you read the article?
These penalties are peanuts on a relative scale if the even exist next year
A Not so hidden secret that still remains hidden on MLBTR
VonPurpleHayes
These teams more than made up for those penalties in ticket sales and merchandise sold as a direct result of big signings. Seeing these penalties, I don’t understand why other competitive teams didn’t just go over the tax. Anyway, the threshold will certainly be higher next season (if there is a season).
paddyo furnichuh
I think you’re premise is generally correct. Though it is dependent on persona of the big name that was signed.
eg: See Trevor Bauer
But that is a rare exception.
DarkSide830
to be fair, does spending to the tune of a $x million penalty always return more than $x million in profits?
VonPurpleHayes
Definitely not, but seeing the penalties described here, the risk reward ratio seems worth it for the right players.
JoeBrady
I doubt it. Think of it like a house. Some investments add value, while others don’t. And your value-added is capped by you neighborhood. A street of $300k houses is probably a bad spot to make $1M worth of improvements.
Cap & Crunch
That’s a good analogy Joe no doubt
The CBT was/is just a line for the owners to use as an excuse tho- The penalties are nominal. Nothing spells that out more than this article with the raw numbers but still folks in here can’t read the writing on the wall
deweybelongsinthehall
There’s always a risk and the real penalties deal with the draft and international signings.
JoeBrady
The CBT was/is just a line for the owners to use as an excuse tho
=================================
The owners have gotten smarter. They no longer draw a hard line. And the ones that go over, often go over big time.
Noel1982
All I care about is no to ever having a salary cap , no need for it ! A salary floor for sure but no salary cap
bucsfan0004
Found Boras’ burner account
JoeBrady
Noel198213 hours ago
All I care about is no to ever having a salary cap
================================
I find that very odd. Why would you care whether or not there was a cap?
amk1920
Shouldn’t the Dodgers pick be moving from 29 to 39? Giants did win 1 more game than them
Anthony Franco
The Mets have two first-round picks. They get a second pick as compensation for not signing Kumar Rocker. The Giants had been slated to pick 31st, although they’ll move back up to 30 with the Dodgers dropping.
amk1920
Thanks. I forgot about Kumar
JAMES JACOBSEN
Where does the penalty money go?
Anthony Franco
Excerpting here from the AP article:
“The first $13 million of tax money is used to fund player benefits, and 50% of the remainder will be used to fund player individual retirement accounts. The other 50% of the remainder will be given to teams not over the tax threshold: $373,990 per club.”
JoeBrady
So the SDP are supplementing the NYY? BB never fails to amuse me.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Well, I knew the Orioles did not have this issue.
bobtillman
AND they get another #373,990 to spend on payroll!!!!!
slider32
or pocket the money! Now they can use the money on their 10th round draft pick.
bbatardo
Never in my life did I expect the Padres to be near the top of payroll and here they are.. which only got them 3rd place and an under .500 record.
padresfan619 2
100% It’s hard being a San Diego fan sometimes. I mean at least they are trying to win hasn’t worked out yet but I can appreciate the effort made by ownership spending on players and at least making me believe it’s a championship caliber team
JAMES JACOBSEN
Also being a METS fan these days
CNichols
It’s clearly a failure to finish 3rd and not even make the playoffs when paying the tax. No other way to describe how 2021 ended for SD other than disappointing.
The only silver lining to all of the spending is that all their main pieces are locked up and they barely lost anyone significant to free agency. The core for 2022 is already pretty solid even without any major additions this offseason.
They were 18 games over .500 in mid-August before they completely imploded and started signing pitchers off the street. With increased pitching depth and better injury luck, I think all this money they’ve already spent puts them in a good spot to compete in 2022.
yankista
I don’t care…. It’s not my money!!!
Old York
Wish they would get rid of this ridiculous tax and go back to allowing teams to spend as they please. I would actually prefer if there were less teams in the league with owners who want to spend on the best team. If other teams can’t survive, they shouldn’t be in the league. Tired of seeing teams lose over 100 for years and years only to still not be competitive enough to win even the division. Tired of seeing gascan pitchers very day or garbage players who either K /ground out 34% of the time, walk 33% of the time or Home Run 33% of the time. Wouldn’t be so bad if the guy who walked could actually steal some bases like Rickey Henderson would but most of those guys are double plays in the making.
theodore glass
Leagues grow with time they don’t get smaller.
Brew’88
By 2070 there will be 65 teams
Skeptical
And a 60 team playoff.
Brew’88
The Orioles will be one of the 5 that don’t make it
Old York
And by then, you’ll have given up on baseball because it has become a watered down version of the Nippon Professional Baseball league.
Old York
They should grow but there is a point where the quality of player is being watered down by the number of teams. Having too many is just as bad as having too few.
mustang
The Yankees win!!!!
Theeeee Yankees win!!!!
Lol
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Let’s cut the welfare for billionaires and have a salary floor of ninety million per year, with a fifty percent tax on the amount under the floor. And let’s randomly select the draft order among the six worst teams. Now, let’s play ball!
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Dodgers should have gone with Eddie Bauer, not the perv, it would have been cheaper. Second best moment of the regular season was when Tatis homered off Bauer and covered one eye as he ran from first base to second base. Second only to the best moment of regular season was when Javier Baez ran from almost at first base back to almost at home plate, tricking the Pirates’ young first baseman Will Craig to follow him rather than just stepping on the base.
Jean Matrac
MannyBeingMVP:
Well at least that Javier Baez/Will Craig incident was a teaching moment.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I hope that Will Craig does well overseas in 2022.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Is Will Craig expected in 2022 to return to Kiwoom of KBO?
Deleted_User
I wonder what exactly was going through Baez’s head at that moment. No matter what else happened, he had to make it to first base before Will Craig for any runs that scored on the play to count. It honestly wasn’t a smart move on Baez’s part, even if it ended up working out. Like, he had no idea Will Craig wouldn’t just step on first.
Reuven
Anthony and other mavens, 2 CBT questions (recognizing this all might change in new CBA):
1. Let’s say team A signs someone to a 3 year contract with salaries of 5M, 10M, and 15M, for an AAV of 10M. Then after year 1, they trade this guy to team B. On team B’s CBT ledger, does this contract count at its original AAV (10M), or the AAV of the two remaining years (the salary commitment team B took over, 10M and 15M for an AAV of 12.5M)?
2. Let’s say a team signs a guy to a 2 year contract with salaries of 5M and 10M, but tacks on a team-option 3rd year at 15M, with a 3M buyout. Is the AAV the average of all 3 years’ max salaries (5+10+15 = 10M AAV), The average of only the guaranteed money (5+10+3 = 18) spread over 3 years (6M AAV in years 1 and 2, becoming 10M in year 3 if option is picked up, but counting as 6M in year 3 despite the buyout), or the average of only guaranteed money, but with the buyout counting towards year 2 (so, 9M AAV in years 1 and 2, becoming 10M if option is picked up)?
Thanks.
JoeBrady
1-Pretty sure that the AAV follows you no matter where you go.
2-I ‘think’ the option year doesn’t count (but buyouts do), subject to review by the MLB. I think if it is $1o & $12M, with an option for $14M, then it becomes an AAV of $11M. but it is $1M & $2M, with a player option of $33M in year 3, the league will just call it a $12M AAV.
Hendriks contract has a club option for year 4 of $15M, but the buy-out is also $15M. For tax purposes, I believe that the $15M is spread out over the first three years.
Reuven
Thanks Joe!
RobM
So I expect the Dodgers tax hit to be lower as their payroll will likely come in lower than the $285 stated. Almost assuredly, actually. It’s the Trevor Bauer impact, which has yet to be resolved. He was on administrative leave the second half of the year, meaning he was paid, but eventually some penalty will be handed down by MLB. At best, he’ll get the Ozuna penalty, meaning “time served.” That means he will have to return his pay for the second half of 2021, and the Dodgers taxable payroll will be reduced by about $20M. Even at that level, they’ll likely still have their draft pick pushed back 10 spots in the Rule 4.
kingbum
Want to change income inequality you can do that through taxes. Tax the rich an obscene amount that they would notice like 70% and have a sliding scale down much like the luxury tax in baseball. Don’t tax those under 50k…..10% from 50 to 150k 30% 150k to 400k 400k to 600k 50% 600k to 1M 60% and over 1M 70%….for people this would be insignificant but the rich would be ready to kill people lol…….then again then there is no motivation for success and innovation you do this so pick your poison
JoeBrady
We tried the 70% tax rate. The result was the ’70s.
The focus of taxes should be trying to increase taxes on things you are trying to reduce arid decrease taxes on things you want more of. There are plenty of easier ways, and more productive ways to balance the budget. Discouraging people from investing in the US is not one of them.
emac22
It’s funny that people think Don Jr would have less motivation to innovate or work if his daddy wasn’t rich.
Poor people need hunger for motivation but rich people need at least 40 million dollars to even get out of bed.
Let’s get a clue.
48-team MLB
Add up the dollar figures of these two payrolls and I assure you that Soler’s home run in Game 6 still eclipses that number in miles traveled.
Dunk Dunkington
Dodgers likely go over the luxury tax again and will reset it in 2023 season IF the luxury tax system is still around which is likely as I don’t see the owners willing to give that up ,
Padres are odd, they went $6 million over and decided that was the limit at the trade deadline and need to reduce payroll to add players. If you usually go over especially in the first year you mind as well max that out and go all in, now if they go over again they will be 2nd time offenders and penalties will likely be to much that they will need to reset.
99socalfrc
I’ll ask again, how does AJ Preller still have a job? He is on manager #4 and spends at a level every Padres GM before him could only dream about. Hasn’t fielded a team that won 80 games in 7 years of trying. I can’t think of a single free agent or extension contract he has on that roster that is tradeable. Seriously terrible GM’ing
JoeBrady
And it is far worse than just the signings. The trades were far worse. This is the SDP without any trades:
bWAR Salary
Torrens 1.0 0.5
Naylor 0.3 0.5
Urias 3.1 0.6
Turner 6.5 13.0
France 4.3 0.6
Reyes 1.6 0.5
Margot 2.8 3.4
Renfroe 2.3 3.1
Lamet 0.2 4.2
Patino 0.1 0.5
Lucches 0.2 0.6
Lauer 2.1 0.6
Quantrill 3.9 0.5
Clase 2.8 0.6
Total 31.2 29.2
The current $210M+ version of the Padres top 14 players has a total bWAR of only 35.9. Without any trades, you could have almost the same value team, with another $180M to spend, and having kept the 10-15 good prospects traded away.
You have to give him credit for developing a great farm, but he’s given away most of it.
SDHotDawg
The thing is, the farm was pretty good when he took over. He destroyed it, restocked it, and has trashed it again. If any of his prospects were so great, why aren’t any of them on the team (except one) in 8 years?
JoeBrady
Most of them were not great, but a lot were pretty good. I have no idea why he traded almost all of them. Maybe it’s the fact that they weren’t great. Maybe he doesn’t have an appreciation for guys that supply 2-3 WAR at very cheap prices. But that’s where you win.
pepenas34
If we have a system that penalize teams for trying too hard, why there is no punishment for those who tank and just get rewarded with first drafts for trying less and less?
stymeedone
You seem to be confusing trying too hard, with spending. Lots of teams were spending without competing. Doesn’t seem like they were trying too hard as much as failing too hard.
JoeBrady
1-The main issue is to have the small market teams have the resources with the large market teams. If baseball was nothing more than teams spending 50% of the revenues on players, then you’d see the same teams in the playoffs every year. Is that what you want?
2-Teams usually get bad because a lack of resources. Thr top-5 in revenue are very seldom in the top-5 of drat picks.
to4
Dodgers should blow the threshold and make some good splashes! Just notice they need at least 2 starters, a 3B, a 1B and a SS. Their roster is literally empty.
I would trade with the A’s for Olson and Montas, bring Kershaw back and sign Correa and Story.
1.Turner 2B
2.Betts RF
3.Correa 3B
4.Story SS
5.Olson 1B
6.Smith C
7.Bellinger CF
8.Pollock DH
9.Taylor LF
1.Kershaw
2.Buehler
3.Urias
4.Montas
5.Gonzolin
That could be a route the Dodgers could take but they certainly don’t have that All Star team any more as they’ve lost all of:
Scherzer, Seager, Muncy, Turner, Kershaw and Jansen.
That’s a big chunk of the team and all of them are key players !
JoeBrady
they’ve lost all of: Scherzer, Seager, Muncy, Turner, Kershaw and Jansen.
==================================
Turner and Muncy still there.
pepenas34
J. Turner and Muncy are still in the team, and both have been very good. T. Turner is the SS. One or two SP is the need depending on May and Kershaw, also the Bauer case, plus one RP.
dodger1958
At least they will spend unlike some other organizations.
gary55wv
Where does this tax fee go?
The Saber-toothed Superfife
I blame Al.
America has nothing on Denmark. Nothing.
And….I thought you were my friend.
The Saber-toothed Superfife
See…what did I tell you…
I mean… Denmark has nothing on America. Nothing.