With just a few short days until Spring Training games begin, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Official report date for position players:
Today marks the official position player report date for 18 clubs. Many of those organizations will be having their first full team workouts of the spring today, and as was the case on official report dates for pitchers, there’s a chance that as players continue reporting to camp, as of yet unknown injuries reveal themselves. Of course, many players report to camp early, so several position players have been in camp for days or even weeks ahead of the official report date. The twelve clubs that don’t have their official report date for position players today have them tomorrow. Spring Training games begin later this week.
2. Cohen Press Conference
Per Tim Healey of Newsday Sports, Mets owner Steve Cohen will be holding a press conference this morning. Cohen made waves throughout the baseball world this winter as he was seemingly unbothered by the so-called “Cohen Tax” threshold of the luxury tax, blowing past the $293MM threshold in building a 2023 club with a payroll of nearly $374MM for luxury tax purposes, per RosterResource. Cohen’s willingness to spend far beyond what other owners have been willing to spend in the past appears to have been a factor in the creation of the league’s new “economic reform committee”, which has the stated goal of looking at ways to reduce revenue disparity between clubs, but could be a precursor to owners making an effort to institute a salary cap in the future.
3. MLBTR Chat with former scout Tim Kissner:
MLBTR occasionally hosts live chats where former players and other people from around the game of baseball take questions from readers. Today, we’re excited to be hosting Tim Kissner, a former scout with over two decades of experience in MLB. Kissner has been a member of the Guardians, Phillies, Cubs, and Mariners organizations during his career, and signed current big leaguers Travis d’Arnaud and perhaps most notably, Julio Rodriguez, during his time in the game. Be sure to tune in to the live chat at 10am CT to ask any questions you might have for Kissner and his wealth of experience.
I don’t know if having a tax nicknamed after you is a good thing or not.
I’m sure he is proud of him that. Probably makes him want to spend more f—— y— money.
Asked Lou Gehrig.
This instantly reminded me of norm Macdonald as Lou Gehrig on SNL
This instantly reminded me of Norm Macdonald as Gehrig on SNL
Wasn’t Kissner most recently with the Mets?
I’m not opposed to a salary cap but if you institute that you HAVE to institute a salary floor. Stop letting teams like the Pirates, A’s, etc. not spend money they could easily spend.
The owners know they won’t get a salary cap, but the smaller market teams view Cohen as an opportunity to shift more local revenue from big market teams into the pockets of the owners of smaller market teams, who will then do nothing. The A’s, Pirates, Reds etc, have no intention of spending.
Other big market clubs will not allow more money to be given away like presently is to the smaller clubs. Does anyone think Hal Steinbrenner liked paying so much for Judge or Henry enjoyed approving the Devers deal? San Diego and the Mets inability to care about spending is not good for competition. There has to be a floor high enough to satisfy the union. That way the total spent can equal or be more than what is spent today but it gets spread out to more players. Don’t think those contracts raise every players contract like what was thought in the past. Teams will still duck under the threshold to reset and other teams will simply continue spending as they’ve been without a floor. The veterans on the down side of their career will be retiring earlier because those jobs will be going to rookies on an even larger basis than today.
I’d separate what San Diego is doing. Their owner is in a win-now mode and he’s going for it. He’s done more for excitement around baseball in San Diego in forever. I don’t see them doing this as an ongoing way of operating. They’ll pull back once they exhaust this window. Cohen is the more interesting owner. He said coming in he intended to make the Mets winners and that he’d spend big upfront until the farm began to produce. I suspect he will pull back under the luxury tax line before the next CBA. Notice many of his contracts are high dollar but short term. Scherzer, Verlander are two, three years deals. He’s built a path to pull back under. All teams, including the Yankees, Red Sox and now the Dodgers (well, they’re trying!) retreat.
I believe the other owners are fine with the big market teams going over the luxury tax line and getting taxed. It’s a feature not a flaw. That money goes into the central fund, which means the other teams pay less. Cohen has brought it to a new level. That’s the curious part. Will he maintain that?
The battle now may be between the owners. Cohen may find that even the other big market teams don’t support him. They all have a back room agreement and Cohen seems to be ignoring it.
Your last sentence is total conjecture. Based on nothing.
Keep in mind that the owners have not mentioned a salary cap. That is pure speculation on the part of the press. If, as everyone says, the owners know that the players won’t go for one, why assume that’s what’s going to happen. Do t let them press your buttons. Either way, it won’t effect our salaries at the end of the day.
There should be a salary floor only if teams are allowed to drop below it for a season or two.
There already is a salary floor. Why don’t people understand that?
It is: minimum salary x 26
700,000 x 26 = $18,200,000.00
That is the current minimum salary.
They do understand that.
The “haves vs have nots” is just as much an issue of the lesser teams not taking the proceeds of the luxury tax and signing some players too. But yeah it’s gone NUTS and the betting thing is going to make revenues all the more messier
Speaking of scouts, how about a chat with John Barr?
I know the players are resistant to any cap and will need conditions to give into it. First, there would have to be a floor of $100M. Second, let’s say the initial cap is set at $400M. It would have to be separate from any tax penalties. They may also want conditions on the floor. They probably want the salaries to be written into the players’ contracts instead of distributing the shortfall among all the players on the 40-man roster. They’d also want changes to the arb process where teams that are below the floor are ineligible to take the matter before an arbitrator, so they’d have to give the player the maximum allowable request for his case.
Owners will not all agree on such a high cap. To allow Cohen for example to go even higher is stupid. You realize the Mets 23 projected number includes penalties for exceeding various thresholds? Under your range, big market clubs won’t pay anything as penalties meaning less money for the smaller clubs. If I’m wrong, please correct me .
In my opinion there are 4 things the players would require to even consider a hard cap on salaries.
The least likely of the 4 is 100% revenue sharing. All revenue thrown in a pot and shared equally between all teams like it is in other major sports.
Another requirement that is unlikely is the owners allowing the MLBPA to see what they actually earn and spend. We can see what the Braves and Blue Jays earn and it’s over $500 million. Both of those teams could be spending with Dodgers and Yankees and still turn a tidy profit. Players would want to see what all teams earn and spend.
The players would want a salary floor of 40+% of revenue. That means around $160 million today. Remember the first requirement. All teams would have $400 million or more in revenue.
Last would be a requirement that players get 50% of gross revenue overall. MLB players haven’t been close to that recently. Every other major sport has that in their CBA.
The owners are setting themselves up for failure if they try to set a hard cap as a must in the next CBA negotiations.
There will never be full revenue sharing and such is not the case in other sports. Football for example does have some (but certainly not all) because they’re a “national, once a week sport” and their network deals are huge in comparison to all other sports. They also only have to fill a stadium 9 times a season. Yes stadiums are larger but if you build a winning club, it will get filled with so few games to choose from. Talking about a % if revenue and most owners unwillingness to open their books is spot on.
One of the issues with a cap in MLB is there’s an entire current system that would need to be rebuilt, and that can’t be done with one sweep of the pen in the next CBA. A hard cap would also require a hard floor, and that means the bottom 1/3rd of teams will demand a significant increase in revenue sharing on the local level to cover the floor. Another issue, among many, is no-trade clauses, or simply 10-5 rights, would need to be eliminated so teams can try to manage to a cap. Teams will have to do away with those, but of course the players won’t (and shouldn’t) agree to that. They really would have to do away with guaranteed contracts too, or build in significant “contract forgiveness” for teams. If they don’t, there’s zero incentive for the top-half teams and the players to ever agree to a cap. MLB is not the NFL, which has a massive national TV contract and stadiums that sell out in all markets because there are only 17 games. NFL teams can all play on the same level. MLB teams have to fight for revenue also on the local level. Why would the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Cohens, the Angels, the Astros agree to share even more money with the bottom teams who will in turn be contributing little on the local revenue share? The current system is what’s enabling the A’s to not care if a single person shows up at the park. Anyway, I’ve lost track of where I was going with this!
Rob, nice post even if you lost your train of thought. Owners are likely kicking themselves approving Cohen. Given his out of baseball history, they could have said no and defended any lawsuit.
I was heading toward a more firm conclusion, but realized it was already getting wordy. I’m annoyed that only one year into the CBA, we’re now going to have to listen to labor war sabre rattling for the next four years.
Oh, no, owners crying poor because someone came in and spent more than them. MLB has far too much unnecessary drama off the field but on the field, they’ve turned the game into a snorefest with all the excessive rule changes. Worst of all is that ghost running nonsense like we’re still playing Little League baseball. Might as well leave it a tie like they do in the Japanese league. At least one team isn’t winning because the RP game in and got the first two batters out but the runner still scored.
Yeah…nothing makes me want to turn a game off more than no outs, winning/go-ahead run on second in extra innings. Total bore.
Stud, artificial rules are not baseball. Why not reduce the strikeout to two strikes? That would greatly speed up the game
That’s a perfectly legitimate opinion. However, suggesting that it makes boring or that fans will actually stop watching MLB is just preposterous.
Personally, on a list of 100 things I may take issue with on the game, this is like #106.
@dewey, why two? I’ve played one pitch softball, if you take a pitch and it’s a strike, you’re out!
Never played that. I was not a great hitter and the best ball I ever hit was a monster shot that surprised everyone with me the most. Too bad it hooked foul by a few feet and I was out on a third strike foul ball rule.
Sadly, TV ratings have plummeted in extra innings the last 2 years. People don’t like the runner on 2nd and they are simply changing the channel when games going into extras.
I cannot find any sources that demonstrate plummeting ratings relative to pre-2020. Anyone?
It’s not simply spending more than them. It’s spending far above revenue. The Mets are projected to have a loss of well over $100 M.
Link please….
To suggest you know the Mets books is laughable.
Basic math has fallen wayside with the complaints about Cohen spending money. Years ago when the Yankees were spending like crazy, Red Sox, dodgers, etc the percentage of money over the top limit was greater than the Mets are now. Cohen is doing the right thing for baseball by not selling his team off for years building a farm system and then competing. Instead he is using his own money to buy players and make a competitive team while rebuilding a farm system. I think it’s cool to see (yes I’m finally feeling spoiled right now as a Mets fan). I much rather see teams try this style of rebuild than forfeiting season after season and removing young fans in the process.
The problem is not all teams can realistically do it the Cohen way. He’s not only the richest owner but he’s effectively if not actually a sole owner with no partners or board to deal with.
Valid point! Ask Jeter how much fun it is working with partners.
if i can realistically only buy a ford fiesta and you can buy a bentley should that influence your decision? That is what cohen is doing,. he can get a Scherzer and Verlander while the pirates are scraping for a rich hill. The A’s have a projected payroll of about 60M and the owner is worth 2.2B thats billion with a B. They cant afford to throw money into the team and make it a better product? The pirates and correct me if i am wrong have) never hit a 100M payroll and have been bottom 10 (mostly under 50M) in payrolls even with an owner with a 1.1B net worth..
And also the owners are keeping out people that CAN afford these salaries such as Mark Cuban that has been trying to buy a team for years and has that type of money and would probably be a sole owner. He also has proven he is willing to spend the money to make a team into a contender. Look what he did with the mavericks.
If the owners want revenue sharing any team that takes revenue sharing has to open the books and show that they need it and not making more than x profit on the team. Cap it at even 25% and im sure that a healthy profit. If they are over that threshold they get no revenue sharing.
Im not a fan of what Cohen is doing but i am definitely enjoying the ride after having the coupons. Also the Yankees in the past have had an over 200M payroll when the number 4 highest payroll at the time had less than 100M yet the committee never formed for that disparity and people complained at that time but no committee formed for that.
I definitely hear you. I just think the hits he takes aren’t fully educated in regards to the math as I said previously, and I think he should be praised a little for how he is going about the “rebuild” of the system. The teams that can’t do it this way, I understand that completely, but since he can, and is, that’s pretty cool. I’m curious to see how it goes the next five years. If he gets a ring with his Money early on and if he get a ring with his system later on.
Left out about the news on position players reporting, there was a second truck day in Boston. Apparently, the supplies of geritol and liniment oil were over-used by the geriatrics already with the club. A second shipment, to be kept under lock and key, was needed as more over-the-hill players began riding into camp. One reporter said there was almost a scum when Rafael Devers ran over a parked rascal scooter in the parking lot, but, the altercation was averted when Devers slowly walked away and the rascal owning player couldn’t keep up.
GA. You wasted time posting this? Keep doing it and others like me won’t spend time reading your posts.
Let’s see what will be the biggest topic at the Economic Reform Committee meetings. Will it be the big bad wolf who spends too much money or will it be the impending bankruptcy of the company holding the media rights for 14 teams? I’m sure there will be a bit of venting about spending but that’s not the reason for this committee.
It’s time to have national streaming. Use this time to eliminate exclusive rights across platforms. That’s the reason for the streaming blackouts which are anlienating customers. In future contracts cable and satellite rights no longer prevent MLB from streaming any game anywhere. Make all streaming come from one central platform and share all revenue equally. Revenues will beging to equalize as cable and satellite die. they will never be completely equal but this would help a great deal.
There will be no cap without a brutal and very damaging strike. Forget about it.
The fangraphs link below is from 2020, but as you can see most of the contracts extend for quite a while. The Mets and Orioles have the same local TV revenue and there are a bunch of teams +/- $10 M of them. The Dodgers are in a class by themselves, but the disparity of $70M from the Yankees to the Pirates is telling of what we should see in payroll disparity.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-update-the-estimated-local-tv-revenue-for-mlb-teams/
That’s why the Bally bankruptcy is an opportunity to change the rules for almost half the teams now. Nothing they do is going to change things overnight. After this it will be one contract at a time. The main thing is to start moving into a streaming first model where you can buy the ability to watch any games you want to watch. It’s a problem when you have larges numbers of people who want to watch but can’t watch. Cardinals ownership has said that the blackouts are a big problem which has to be corrected moving forward.
Those people that want to watch CAN. Subscribe to cable. Problem solved.
People are not going to sign up for cable just so they can watch baseball. Cable is dying whether you like it or not. It’s a losing game for MLB to fight
it. Streaming is the future, it needs to be fixed sooner rather than later.
“larges numbers of people who want to watch but can’t”
Again, they CAN watch. Oh, they can’t watch the specific way they want to watch? Well, you can’t always get what you want. No matter how much of a whiny baby you are.
That’s pretty funny. I don’t think “No Soup for You!” works as a businesses model unless it’s an imaginary businesses on Seinfeld. MLB wants more customers; not fewer customers. What are you going to do when cable has so few customers that it collapses?
AGAIN, again. You contended that these folks have no way of watching the games. THEY DO. “I don’t want to subscribe to cable, but I want to watch everything that is on cable.” Sorry, no sympathy for a bunch of entitled dickbags.
Why so angry? Is it all the content disappearing from cable and satellite due to lost customers making it difficult for cable prooviders to afford the rights payments? How long before things like reruns of Gunsmoke and Barney Millier are all that’s left? No one is looking for your sympathy. MLB is trying to find ways of keeping its customers as more and more of them cut the cable. Watching baseball will not be enough incentive for people to keep paying for a service they don’t want.
No one is asking them stop broadcasting on cable. We’d just like to see them also stream the games. No one is being entitled. People are simply saying we won’t watch if we have to have cable.
I do realize that losing the exclusive rights to games might speed the collapse of cable. That’s not MLB’s problem. They need to be moving to the future instead of clinging to the past.
But you aren’t saying you’d “just like to see them also stream.” You contended that people want to watch but can’t. AGAIN, for the hundredth time, they DO have a way to watch.
I want to watch shows that are on HBO. Turns out, I have to subscribe to HBO. Want to watch baseball? Turns out, you have to subscribe to cable.
See how that works? I understand that you are a Cardinals fan, but even a fanbase as dumb as them should be able to understand, Lil’ Abner.
… and you don’t seem to realize your team would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of total streaming revenue sharing from a centralized platform.
Let’s change can’t to unable using their preferred platform. Sorry if I’m stupid enough to believe it’s a bad idea for a business to cling to a soon to be obsolete platform. I’ll try to get smart enough to pay for a service I no longer want.
Just wait until the Willets Point rejuvenation, soccer stadium, and Cohen’s Casino are all in place. If you’re worried about what he’s spending now… just wait…….