Growing up playing baseball, I was taught to play fair. Teams would get picked, the best players would get picked first, and the runt of the litter would get picked last. There were not any trades, and there definitely was not any money involved. Major League Baseball is different. As I have noticed growing up, playing fair does not always get you everything, and Major League Baseball has proven that. Major League Baseball has become the survival of the fittest but when there is a vast gap between rich teams and poor teams, it becomes an unfair and repetitive game. After many years of following sports, I have witnessed this gap getting larger and larger, and the same teams are in the playoffs every year. Teams that have these big budgets are in cities like New York and Los Angeles, that have large populations and a lot of revenue coming in, and these rich teams overpower the rest of the league. These teams are able to outbid the other teams in order to get the best players. The teams that are on top usually stay on top, and the teams on the bottom typically stay on the bottom. 

Salary caps need to be instated in Major League Baseball to prevent this from happening, to create a sense of competitive balance, in terms of budget. A salary cap is a set limit of money a team can spend on salaries for their players. Right now, Major League Baseball is the only sports league out of the four major American sports leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL), that does not have a salary cap. Each league has its own set salary cap limit and regulations. The NBA has a “soft” salary cap, which means a team cannot spend more money on players’ salaries than the salary cap limit, and on top of that they have a luxury tax, which is a separate threshold and if a team spends more than that amount, they will be taxed. The NFL and NHL have a “hard” salary cap, which means each team must always stay below the salary cap. The MLB does however, possess a luxury tax, which is a limit that a team can spend on their entire payroll, if that team goes over that amount, they will be taxed. Sports leagues adopt the salary cap to create competitive balance among the teams, especially in the free-agent market. Free-agents are players that are not bound by a contract with a team, and they have the ability to choose the team they want to play for. Salary caps play a role in this because teams with the larger budgets have more money to offer to the players in the free-agent market than the teams that do not have as much wealth. Now any player with a right mind will go towards the bigger payday. In fact, salary caps were proposed to the MLB in 1994 by the owners, which resulted in a strike by the players. The strike did end, and no salary cap was instated. For salary caps to be established, the MLB and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) would have to agree on it. Who knows if salary caps will ever take place in Major League Baseball, but they are vital if the MLB ever wants to create a sense of competitive balance. Salary caps simply make the game fairer, and finally give the little guy his chance. 

There are many sports analysts and fans that believe that salary caps would be bad for the game of baseball, and it could potentially ruin it. Players obviously do not want salary caps because it prevents them from having a larger salary, and the MLBPA will most likely never let this happen. Other sports leagues have a salary cap, and some would say that salary caps have failed in those leagues. Gwen Knapp explains how salary caps do not improve competitive balance, he states “In reality, baseball has experienced more trophy turnover than the two other leagues, especially the NBA. Over the past 10 years, baseball has produced nine different World Series champions, the NFL seven Super Bowl winners and the NBA just five crowned franchises” (Knapp). Theoretically, competitive balance is supposed to produce variety of different champions in sports leagues over a set amount of years, but mathematically it has not. However, MLB had the most non-playoff teams (5), which are teams that did not have the best record in their respective divisions, but the NBA (0) and the NFL (3), according to Knapp’s findings. Since the MLB has the most non-playoff teams, they have more teams that are not getting their shot at a World Series because wealthier teams are buying the more talented players in order to rise, or stay at the top of their division. Sports leagues implemented salary caps to improve competitive balance, but Knapp explains with this data that salary caps are not improving competitive balance. According to MLB 2017 Payroll Tracker, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been the top spender in the league for the past four seasons with an average of about $270 million, and they have made the playoffs each of those four years. The Miami Marlins have been in the bottom five of the payroll amount in the MLB over the past four years with an average of about $65 million, and they have been in the bottom of their respective division for the past four years. There is a vast gap between the top spenders in the league and the bottom, mostly because the teams at the top have more money to spend, and the teams at the bottom do not. There is already an unfair advantage when there are teams that have four times more money to spend than others. Teams with more money can buy the players they need, which leaves the teams at the bottom of the league with the runt of the litter. Dayn Perry also expresses that salary caps only help profit the owners, he states “The only thing hard salary caps do with any certainty is increase the profits of ownership by tamping down labor costs, which… has nothing to do with improving competitive balance in large part because caps don’t, you know, improve competitive balance” (Perry). Perry is right, owners do push for salary caps because it does potentially improve their profit, but of course the owners have to fight the MLBPA to get salary caps approved. David Berri also emphasizes that salary caps have not improved competitive balance in the NBA, he states “Despite the NBA’s competitive balance issues, fan interest has grown across the past few decades” (Berri). So, Berri is pointing out that salary caps are not helping to create balance, and not having balance is increasing fan interest. It has been argued that salary caps have failed from improving competitive balance in other sports leagues because leagues with salary caps still have the same teams in the playoffs every year, but the MLB has the same teams near the bottom of the league every year.

Salary caps really aim to help balance teams in the free-agent market; trying to split up the good players among the teams, instead of having all of the good players go the same teams. Teams that have a lot of revenue and a lot of money to use for their players’ salaries are based in cities that have large media markets and large populations. Players will most likely go to the team that will put more money in their wallets, which usually takes place in the free-agent market. Perry explains how salary caps will not fix this issue, he states “Even if we did cap salaries, talent that cares about such things will still generally flow in the direction of the large media markets because that's where the off-the-field business opportunities are concentrated (local endorsements and whatnot)” (Perry). Major market cities include New York and Los Angeles who have teams that are generally at the top of their divisions every year. Those big cities are going to sell tickets, which is going to bring in revenue. How much revenue a team brings in will not matter in their salaries if there is a salary cap put in place. Also, some fans would argue that players make too much money for playing a kid’s game, but according to Ted Berg, “As long as money keeps pouring into baseball, baseball players are going to get richer and richer contracts. Deals like Price’s are a reflection of the game’s strength, not a damnation of its excesses.” (Berg). He is referring to David Price’s contract that he signed in November 2015 that was worth $217 million, which made him the highest paid pitcher in baseball history. Some fans believe that these big contracts that players are signing can be fixed with salary caps; Berg believes the MLB not having a salary cap is the problem, and the MLB adopting a salary cap will not solve the problem since these big contracts are from the success of Major League Baseball. 

Teams that are at the bottom of the league have to play what they call “moneyball,” which is buying undervalued players to create an underdog role since the more talented players are taken by the wealthier teams. “Moneyball” is rarely successful in the major sports leagues. This concept was and still is very relevant to today’s game, they made a film about it called Moneyball. This film is about the Oakland Athletics who had the least amount of revenue throughout the entire league of baseball, and started buying undervalued players to replace their superstar players who were taken by richer teams. In the film, Brad Pitt plays the Athletics’ General Manager, and he says “There are rich teams, then there are poor teams, then there’s fifty feet of crap, and then there’s us. It’s an unfair game…Boston’s taken our kidneys, Yankees have taken our heart…We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter? He dies” (Moneyball). He is eluding to the fact that the rich teams in Major League Baseball take all of the good players because they can offer them more money than any other team in the league. Since there is not a salary cap in the MLB, these rich teams can spend as much money as they have to get those good players, while poor teams can only spend the little money they have to just to fill their roster. With a salary cap, every team will have the same amount of money to spend on their players’ salaries, and every team would have a fair chance of getting a player to fulfill their team’s needs. A salary cap would be most useful in the free-agent market where there are players that have a choice of where to play baseball. This is a major issue in baseball over the past twenty years, and general managers and owners have been pushing for a salary cap to be instated throughout the league. Major League Baseball however has made a push to create a sense of competitive balance by implementing a luxury tax, instead of a salary cap. The MLB and MLBPA has recently signed a new labor deal that includes a luxury tax, according to Dave Sheinin. This luxury tax is a tax that is imposed on a team that goes over the amount of money set by the league to pay their payroll. This does help with competitive balance, but it is not noticeably effective. These rich teams are not bothered by the luxury tax because they can afford it, so they are still able to outbid other teams for more talented players.

Players in the MLB have been fighting to keep salary caps out of baseball because it will limit the amount of money they could potentially make. The owners did propose a salary cap in 1994, which resulted in a strike by the players. This started the formation of the MLBPA, and the agreement that the MLB and MLBPA must come to a consensus to change rules and regulations applied to the league. No one can blame the players for not wanting a salary cap because who would not want more money? Maury Brown suggests that players should consider a salary cap. He writes, “Approach something similar to a system that says a percentage of those revenues must be spent on player salaries like the NBA?” (Brown). Simply what Brown is trying to say is that if there is a salary cap, the league can implement a rule that a certain percentage of a team’s revenue must be spent on players’ salaries. Currently, players’ salaries are a small percentage of a team’s revenue. Brown suggests that a cap is the only way to ensure that players can get a bigger piece of the pie from the team’s success. 

Fans have also become tired of the repetition of teams in the playoffs year after year. Most fans do not like seeing the same teams over and over again in the playoffs, especially fans of teams that do not typically make the playoffs. I have made these observations from years of watching, following, and talking baseball with friends. Dr. Daniel A. Rascher has assumed the same thing about fans not appreciating the dominance of teams in the MLB. Rascher says, “The on-field dominance by the New York Yankees baseball teams of the 1920s led to attendance problems for the Yankees and for many of the other Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Fans grew tired of lopsided, predetermined affairs, instead preferring uncertain outcomes and balance.” (Rascher). I have observed that some fans enjoy dominance in sports like Alabama Football, UConn Women’s Basketball, and the New England Patriots; however, most fans are wanting unexpected outcomes, which do not happen very often in Major League Baseball, so some fans are starting to lose interest. March Madness for college basketball is the second most  watched sporting event every year because unexpected outcomes and upsets tend to happen during the tournament, hence “Madness” in the title. This is what fans want for MLB baseball, so fans want salary caps to be implemented into Major League Baseball to spark those unsuspected upsets and give the underrated team its chance. 

There can be many different ways to improve competitive balance in Major League Baseball, but salary caps ae the way to go. Salary caps are intended to make the game fairer, and hopefully create variety in the playoffs and see teams you normally would not see in the playoffs from previous poor seasons. Salary caps do much more than just make the game fairer; but it could be profitable for the owners, for the players, and it could be beneficial for the fans because they can finally see their team win the last game of the season and hold up that trophy and wear that ring. Poor teams are having to compete with rich teams in the free-agent market, and simply the poor teams do not stand a chance. The MLB and MLBPA would of course have to agree on salary cap negotiations, and who knows if that would ever happen. Should they? In my opinion, yes. Major League Baseball is the only major sports league out of the four major sports leagues to not obtain a salary cap negotiation, so the MLB should hop on the bandwagon train and adopt a salary cap, so the game of baseball is made great (fair) again. 
