The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Tim’s recent post looking at MLB’s economics and issues of parity (1:20)
- The possibility of a salary cap coming into existence at some point in the future (5:25)
- Comparing the salary cap path to alterations to the current revenue sharing system (8:40)
- The public relations battle with fans knowing all about players and their salaries but not necessarily knowing so much about the owners and their finances (17:35)
- Is there any hope of the owners working out some new revenue sharing arrangement? (20:45)
- Are deferrals a massive problem or is the Shohei Ohtani deal just an extreme outlier that had led to increased angst? (26:50)
- What kind of compromise are we likely to get in the next collective bargaining agreement? (32:45)
- The Yankees re-signing Cody Bellinger (37:35)
- The Mets acquiring Freddy Peralta from the Brewers and Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox (47:20)
- The Brewers’ end of the Peralta trade (53:20)
- The White Sox’ end of the Robert deal (56:15)
- The Rangers sending five prospects to the Nationals to acquire MacKenzie Gore (1:02:00)
Check out our past episodes!
- What The Tucker And Bichette Contracts Mean For Baseball – Also, Nolan Arenado And Ranger Suarez – listen here
- The Cubs Land Cabrera And Bregman, Remaining Free Agents, And Skubal’s Arbitration Filing – listen here
- Contracts For Imai And Okamoto, And Thoughts On The Pirates And Giants – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
Without the square root of negative one it’s a party.
“ The public relations battle with fans knowing all about players and their salaries but not necessarily knowing so much about the owners and their finances”
Not every owner can defer 2.2 billion dollars, lower their cbt tax hit from 500-600 million to 300 million. One team having 10 of the top 30 most deferrals on contracts is just absurd That’s it’s. Thats the problem.
It’s a simple fix that if they don’t have a salary cap at a minimum they must have a floor of $100 million minimum and tax any deferred money at 110% based on total dollars of contract and that all but ends the deferred crap cause no benefit. This circumvents the taxes a player pays especially in Ohtani’s case when he goes back to Japan screwing the US of $697 million tax free when retired! Most important the tax penalty for 3rd time offenders should increase to 150% and a loss of their top 3 draft picks for that following season and install an international draft similar to current US draft based on record. This all assures any international player who wants to come to US regardless if they are a free agent must enter the draft and can no longer choose their team especially Japanese players always selecting Dodgers. This will definitely eliminate the issues and add more balance to clubs trying to compete
Yeah this cba negotiation is not going to be about being pro-player or pro-owner as a fan. I strictly want them to come to some sort of agreement that is pro-fan. I couldn’t care less which side gives up concessions to make the game more even across the board. The way baseball is currently going is not good for the vast majority of markets in the game.
jd – Until MLB stops generating record-breaking revenue all the time, nothing is broken.
$10.7B 2019
$$10.8B 2022
$11B 2023
$12.1B 2024
True parity is structurally impossible without procedural modifications. A system where both ownership and franchise location are fluid could be employed. Failure to achieve a winning record over a period of time or an acceptable won loss percentage over a period would result in the removal of ownership. Failure to reasonably fill a stadium or have sufficient viewership would result in removal of the franchise from its location. Short term there might be some upheaval but longer term there could be stabilization and even a degree of parity.
I have no problem whatsoever with your discussion on revenue disparities and how negotiations in the next CBA will focus on addressing that, including a salary cap/floor, adjusting penalties on teams that exceed the cap and also those teams that refuse to spend while pocketing revenue from the CBT, etc.
I do feel the need to call out the absolutely uniformed 6 minute discussion on deferrals. Tim you should be embarrassed by this segment as I know you know better. Darragh’s ignorance and passive aggressive commentary is nothing new and we have come to expect it; but, Tim you know better. This six minute blather of animated ignorance so typical of the coverage of this issue that has perpetuated the ignorant obsession so many fans (and commenters on this site) have over deferrals.
Once again, we are subjected to a lack of honest reporting on deferrals. No mention that deferrals are not a way to avoid CBT calculations, that most other teams use deferrals and many players actually prefer some deferrals as a way of managing tax liability, that the reasons Ohtani is an outlier are because of his extraordinary tax liability AND his extra extraordinary current revenue outside of his salary AND that his agent purposely misled the public about Shohei’s compensation package ($700 m inflated price tag in order to embellish the success of negotiating efforts).
Aside from acknowledging (covering your ignorance with a fig leaf) that you are “not an expert” or “you really don’t understand finance”, you and Darragh go on to spend 6 minutes perpetuating the existence of a problem that has NOTHING to do with the larger, important issue of revenue inequity, the unwillingness of team’s to spend, the differing motives of owners and players in CBA negotiations, the likelihood of a cap/floor being agreed to vs other options such as revenue sharing, etc. Tim deferrals are a nothing burger and you know it.
What makes this segment even more disgusting is that you have tried to have it both ways Tim. To your credit, you have published the work of people who do know finance and understand this issue. Unfortunately, you have also, in the past, defended your writers and this site for not engaging in the kind of sensationalist rhetoric we see elsewhere.
Shame on you both for this dishonesty.