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The elephant in the room is that the concept of a luxury tax to help level the playing field is not working. Supposedly, 50% of luxury tax paid gets doled out as welfare to other teams. I don’t know who gets how much, but it obviously does not have the intended result.
Would be interesting to see a breakdown of which teams pay (and how much) the luxury tax and which teams receive money (and how much) then couple that with how much money each receiving team spent on acquiring talent vs. retained dollars.
I wonder how much of each receiving team’s luxury tax revenue went straight to the bottom line?
So do some teams actually lose money forcing it’s owner(s) to ‘feed the monkey and watch him <defecate>’?
I don’t really see the Cards being a poverty org and trying to get there. I don’t have a problem with them cutting payroll for the upcoming season if they use the money to enhance other areas of the org or save for future seasons. It doesn’t really do any good for the team to sign expensive players or hold onto all the vets who won’t help the team in a couple of years. Those guys take spots for young players that could be developing. I wouldn’t just jettison players to drop payroll without getting something back though and would eat money to get a prospect.
I do think long term the Cards will be back to top half and some points top 10 in the league in payroll. It makes sense from a business standpoint for Dewitt to save now while we aren’t expected to be a contender and spend more when we are. We will see if he becomes more risk averse in the future for big long term contracts instead of low risk low payoff type deals. Our higher risk deals in the past haven’t really worked out (Fowler).
Regarding the luxury tax, teams are required to spend 150% of the amount of money they receive otherwise they could face penalties that have not been publicly announced. The Roving Athletics are getting $70 million in luxury tax payroll and just spend at least $105 million on payroll. This is why they are going out and actually finding some players with medium contracts to acquire. Maybe Mo can swindle them into taking Matz off our hands to help them get to their payroll requirement.
Bill had the leaders riding his bumper and pulled off into the pit area. He’s trying to take himself out of it, and that’s not a guy I expect to jump back in, in a committed manner.
Again people think that we have gash payroll if he’s still around. We already got rid of Goldschmidt via FA and declined options on Gibson and Lynn. That’s over 40 million right there they freed up.
People think that because it has been reported that the Cardinals want to reduce payroll further.
This was Mo’s quote in the Katie Woo article in The Athletic after Arenado vetoed the Astro trade.“From a financial standpoint, we’re trying to move our payroll,” he added. “There are certainly other ways we can do this, but (moving Arenado) would be a big help. It’s mostly financial, but it also creates runway for someone else.”
Teoscar’s $66 MM is only the ninth-largest contract on the current Dodgers. Of the top nine, only one of them was homegrown (Will Smith). Four were free agents (all in the top five $$), with the other four trade and extend acquisitions (including Edman).
Any similarities with the Cardinals are completely dwarfed by the huge amounts of money being spent on outside developed talent. If you spend enough, you can win the World Series.
I will concede the fact that the Dodgers are in another stratosphere than the Cardinals when it comes to spending although I still think there is an argument that both teams have a foundation of drafting and developing even though one team is much more successful at it than the other.
But I will vigorously push back on the notion that the Dodger are buying championships. They do everything well. They draft well, develop well, trade well, spend big when they want to, and are active in the international market. They have one of the best farm systems in MLB despite always having a low draft pick. Not only are they one of the smartest teams in MLB I would argue they are one of the best ran teams in all of professional sports in North America.
Steve Cohen has spent a gazillion dollars since buying the Mets yet his trophy cabinet is barren. It takes more than money.
Eight of the Dodgers’ nine highest paid players were developed in other systems. For the players that matter most, they spent the money to acquire and keep the ones other teams could not.
Cohen doesn’t have Friedman. Friedman with a hard cap in TB, vs Friedman with no cap in LA, is the results difference the budgets have made.
Having a great farm system can be beneficial in multiple ways. Those players can enhance your own team or can be used to acquire the players you want from elsewhere.
Let’s also not act like the Dodgers are the only wealthy team in MLB. The Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and others also spend like drunken sailors but don’t have as much to show for it.
Well, I don’t think anyone suggested they are the only wealthy team, but they do stand alone, currently about $90 MM annually higher than anyone else. Here are the 2025 team AAV totals per Spotrac. This is what is used for the CBT. Granted, the signing season is not yet over.
It feels to me like the gap between the haves and the feeders is increasing.
1. LAD $349.5 MM
2. NYY $260.2
3. PHI $248.2
4. NYM $238.3
15. STL $120.1Cots has the CBT numbers a bit different.
1. Dodgers $359
2. Phillies $306.3
3. Yankees $302
4. Mets $278.9
16. Cards $162.6https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/
One thing the Dodgers do that I don’t like is their extreme deferrals. That is something that MLB needs to grapple with and it may be part of the next CBA.
I don’t know who gets how much, but it obviously does not have the intended result.
So far, I have seen the A’s, Marlins and Pirates received $70 million in welfare checks this year, and must spend $105 million next year to avoid the players union filing a grievance. Last year, the A’s ran a payroll of roughly $60 million, Pirates $84 million and Marlins $96 million. The A’s actually got more in welfare than they spent on their team. Of course, they were the pioneers of crying poor to get welfare.
Also, the last grievance the players union filed in 2018 is still not resolved.
Note, the welfare checks for being bad at business are on top of the $100-150 million every team receives from MLB as part of their negotiated contracts.
I don’t really see the Cards being a poverty org and trying to get there. I don’t have a problem with them cutting payroll for the upcoming season if they use the money to enhance other areas of the org or save for future seasons. It doesn’t really do any good for the team to sign expensive players or hold onto all the vets who won’t help the team in a couple of years.
Bill has discovered that the business model he and Mozeliak developed 20+ years ago is broken. That was their profit-maximization strategy.
Since then, MLB has introduced an ever-more grotesque system that actually disincentivizes teams from trying to compete.
Bill will do what maximizes his profits, and in MLB, that is crying poor.
I wouldn’t just jettison players to drop payroll without getting something back though and would eat money to get a prospect.
According to Katie Woo, the Cardinals sole focus on moving Arenado is shedding payroll.
Largest Free Agent Contracts in Team History
I am assuming everybody saw this, but worth pointing out, the maximum free agent contract the Cardinals have ever given was $130 million to Paul Goldschmidt.
Only four teams have a lower-threshold for free agent signings – The A’s, Guardians, Pirates and White Sox
According to Katie Woo, the Cardinals sole focus on moving Arenado is shedding payroll.
In 1981 I was so disgusted with the owners and players, I quit going and didn’t pay any attention to them until 1982. I would get in my car and stop and watch little league games. I love baseball. Im starting to get that feeling again.
After an extended period of lousy baseball the Cardinals genuinely played really well during Whitey’s first full season with the Cardinals in ’81 as they put up an overall season W/L record of 16 games over .500 which was second in the NL only to the Reds who put up an overall W/L record of 24 games over .500. However, neither the Cardinals or Reds qualified for the post-season as they were both victimized by Kuhn’s brainstorm known as the “spilt season.” The entire fiasco was a first rate ripoff, but the Redbirds found some solace in ’82.
If the Cardinals can figure out how to field a winning team, or at the very least, a team that’s fun to watch, fans will come back in droves.
Yeah, although there were plenty of no-shows, the Cardinals still managed to sell 2.8M tickets for a lousy product last season. To place that into context, the Cardinals sold 2.1M tickets during the championship ’82 season. StL. baseball fans will show up to a Big League ballpark to watch a team that plays solid and competitive baseball.
I had a point with my previous post. It’s not the game that I’m disgusted by. It’s the ownership and some of the participants. It might be time for me to detatch from the big leagues. There’s other baseball to be watched. Pure greed is why the Cardinals organization has fallen in̈to a pit. In the name of profits they failed to maintain their player development system and they’ve failed to pay adequate coaches and managers. They’ve failed to rid themselves of a pobo that their fanbase detests. He can’t even give DeWitts money away. I hope Bloom can be the guy to turn them around. But they have to get out of their own way first.
Last season visiting clubs were alarmed at the lack of fans in our stadium, and that’s after signing at least 50mil+ in FA’s over the offseason.
Bill may get back in the race one day competitively, or not, but until then he’s an apron hugger, staying as low and safe as he can.
Agreed.
Analysis: It’s hard to see how the Cardinals or Nolan Arenado win by staying together https://t.co/IQALgwnBuE
— STL Cardinals News (@STLCardsNews) December 29, 2024
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