There’s been a lot of grumbling from the fanbase about the state of the Orioles payroll this winter. On one hand, the payroll is about double what it was two years ago.
Baltimore is set to head into 2025 with a CBT payroll figure north of $160 million, which hasn’t happened in nearly a decade.
But on the other hand, barely any of the money Mike Elias has spent this winter has gone to long-term deals. Most of the contracts the O’s have signed have been for one-year, which has irked a segment of the fanbase.
There have been reasons to be encouraged by the O’s behavior, however.
They’re clearly more open to the idea of increasing the budget, as evidenced by the number of major league deals that have been made.
And the payroll increases we’ve seen are real, and will hopefully be sustained into 2026 and beyond, especially with some of the younger players on the roster and some theoretical contract extensions.
But all that said, David Rubenstein spoke at the World Economic Forum earlier this week and his comments about the Orioles’ future payrolls were not encouraging.
Rubenstein was asked by a Yahoo reporter about his thoughts on the Dodgers’ offseason spending habits.
Rubenstein replied that he wished MLB would have a strict salary cap in place, which in his mind would theoretically narrow the gap between the large and small market teams in terms of financial capabilities. Woof.
Orioles’ owner David Rubenstein apparently wants a salary cap in MLB…welp, I guess he’s off the nice list
Now, it’s true that many baseball fans, especially the casual ones, are up in arms about what the Dodgers are doing.
And if LA happens to win another World Series title in 2025, we’ll surely never hear the end of it.
But the fact of the matter is that MLB, despite being the only major American sport without a true salary cap, has the most parity of the four major sports.
MLB has more unique champions in the last 25 years than any of the other major American sports and no amount of yammering about “parity” and “fairness” will change the fact that MLB’s system, as presently constructed, works.
Despite that fact, there are many who still believe that MLB’s extravagant payrolls foster a rich vs poor environment in which only the largest, richest franchises can succeed.
But that’s clearly not the case. The Steve Cohen Mets have spent $1 billion over the last three seasons, and have little in the way of postseason success to show for it. On the other hand, teams like the Guardians, Brewers, and Rays have been especially successful despite running bottom of the barrel payrolls.
There are many ways to win in MLB, and buying championships isn’t really a thing.
Rob Manfred has even said the quiet part out loud, about how the MLB postseason is designed to favor lower seeds and prevent top teams from winning too often.
What the Dodgers are doing isn’t necessarily bad for baseball, even in the rare event that they do win another title in 2025.
What would be bad for baseball is a salary cap. It would be a horrific outcome for the players, who’d see their share of MLB’s revenues drastically limited.
It would be bad for the fans, especially fans of teams who are currently willing to invest in the on-field product, like the Dodgers, Phillies, Mets, etc. A salary cap wouldn’t create more parity in baseball. It would just drive profits through the roof for the owners.
And keep in mind that these same owners, who’ve been lying to our collective faces for years, decades, generations, would love nothing more than to put the players in a choke hold and implement a salary cap. It’s a real shame that so many fans are on board with the idea.
You’d expect to see these types of comments coming from guys like Bob Nutting and Bruce Sherman, owners of teams who’ve never seriously tried to compete financially with the teams in the top tier. But coming from Rubenstein, who’s so new to his position here, these comments are tough to hear.
Orioles fans are hoping to see a new age dawn in Baltimore. If Rubenstein gets his way, we might never have the chance to see it.
