Major League Baseball has a definite competitive balance problem in terms of its finances, but it is not because of big spending teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, or New York Yankees. It is because of teams like the Baltimore Orioles.
That point was proven again on Sunday when Orioles CEO John Angelos spoke to the media and talked about the team’s payroll and where it stands among the rest of the league’s teams.
While Angelos would not get into the specifics of where the team’s payroll will ultimately end up, he did say, via the Baltimore Sun’s Nathan Ruiz, that even though it will rise in the future it will never be at the level of the Dodgers, Mets, Red Sox or Yankees because “That’s not an Oriole thing. That’s a small, middle market team [thing].”
The Orioles are set to open the 2023 season with the 29th ranked payroll in baseball at around $50 million (via Spotrac), ahead of only the Oakland Athletics and somehow still behind teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates.
It is an appalling number, especially when you consider there are teams in similar (and smaller markets) that have spent significantly on their roster, like the San Diego Padres.
It is also appalling given the fact the Orioles have developed a very good young team that rapidly improved in 2022, surprisingly finishing with a winning record at 83-79. Given the young core of talent on the roster, and its significant improvement in its rebuild, why wouldn’t the Orioles want to make an effort to be competitive around that young core and make a serious push? Especially after Major League Baseball added a playoff team, increasing the field? This team really is not that far away, and with a little bit of help might be able to put itself back into the playoff mix.
He went on to say the payroll could double or triple its current number, or perhaps even top the $100 million mark in the future.
But do you know where a $100 million payroll would rank in Major League Baseball? It would be 22nd in the league. Still among the bottom 10 teams. That is how far behind the rest of the league the Orioles are.
There are no poor owners in Major League Baseball. Everybody could make an effort to be better, and even if the Orioles do not want to approach the Dodgers or Mets level of spending, there is no excuse to be 29th in the league after a winning season with a good young core.
These small market teams like Baltimore and Pittsburgh always make empty promises about spending more in the future when the time is right, but that time never seems to ever arrive for them. They just keep kicking the spending can down the road while the team settles into consistent mediocrity (or worse).
Baseball’s problem is not with the teams that try to win. It is with the teams that make no effort to win.
