The High Cost of Doing Business

According to a story that ran in USA Today back on April 3rd, the top three payrolls in baseball are the Mets ($305.6 million) followed by the Yankees ($303.3 million) and the Dodgers ($249.8 million). The Sad Sox came in at fifteenth with a $143 million payroll. Poor Jerry Reinsdorf (double-entendre intended). He’s spent his life as a team owner trying to keep payroll down, first via collusion, then during a strike where he urged fellow owners to hold out for a salary cap. Only he got caught colluding and struck out on a salary cap. What Reinsdorf has always wanted is the NFL’s “cake and eat it, too” advantage, where the players do all the work and the owners pocket most of the profits. That’s why the Bears’ begging for public money to help build a new stadium is so egregious. Football has a salary cap. The Bears’ payroll is the Packers’ payroll is the Lions’ payroll. The McCaskeys just stink at identifying talent worth paying for. Metropolitan Chicago has a population of just under nine million. If Reinsdorf moves the White Sox to Nashville or sells to a group that does, the Sox will draw from a metro area with a 1.3 million population. How is that going to work without a salary cap? One of two ways. Possibility number one is that new owners are willing to lose bushels of money to bring a World Series to Nashville, in which case that will be a first. Ownership that doesn’t care about long-term return on investment just doesn’t happen in American sports. Possibility number two is that fans will be content with coming close like the Guardians did, reaching—but not winning—the ALCS with a $93.3 million payroll. And how is that working in Tampa? Moral of the story—if you want to be one of the last two teams standing in October, you better be willing to spend. Jerry Reinsdorf isn’t and never has been.