Baseball's Real Financial Crisis

This old problem just won't die

Baseball's Real Financial Crisis

As optimistic as the start of the 2025 baseball season has been, there have been quite a few problems.

We’ve got two teams playing in minor league stadiums. At least we can blame the problem in Tampa Bay on the weather, though the “solution” of playing home games at an 11,000 seat stadium seems ridiculous. The issue with the Athletics, on the other hand, is entirely man-made, as you probably already know.

This tweet, however, is quite eye opening:

Thanks to Brooksgate on Twitter

The comment section is pretty interesting. Forbes apparently estimated that the Mets lost $268 million in 2024, which is a pretty big price to pay for a third place finish. My guess is that the loss is probably a bit exaggerated, and that they may have actually shown a slight profit as depicted here.

But that’s not the problem. The problem also isn’t that the Dodgers are blowing past everybody in terms of payroll (which you can track here).

Nope. The problem is at the bottom of the chart, where the Marlins, White Sox, Rays, and Pirates are spending a miniscule amount of revenue on salary.

The Athletics belong there as well, of course, and are only 19th on this chart because their revenue was so low. That’s what you get when you decide to abandon your city.

This is the best argument I can think of for a salary floor. The current financial system is not only broken because it doesn’t provide a disincentive for the Dodgers to spend over $100,000,000 more on payroll than the next team. The current system is broken because it allows the owners of self-declared “small market teams” to skirt by without spending a cent on their teams.

I could say more, but I’ll keep this article short. Let me know what you think.