Editorials

Dodgers Have 3 Years To Win The World Series Before Baseball Armageddon

Baseball is heading towards a work stoppage in 2022 and I’m positive it will happen.

As we see the players and commissioner in Major League Baseball starting to lob verbal bombs at each other it is easy to see that the sides are not watching the same movie. This article will look at some player quotes and look at where the truth may be, as the rhetoric is already getting ugly already.

Words From Kershaw and Turner

Our Clint Evans wrote about what Clayton Kershaw and Justin Turner said regarding the current free agents that have not signed yet.

From Kershaw:

“It’s not great for the game by any means,” Kershaw said on Tuesday. “We got two guys that are 26-year-old superstars in the game. Obviously, I don’t know either side. I don’t know what’s going on on their side, what kind of offers they’ve been given. But you’d like to see them signed as well as the other 100 or so guys that deserve a spot.” – Jorge Castillo, L.A. Times

From Turner:

“The way baseball works is the people before you sign deals and they set the market. And if you come along and you’re better than those guys, on paper, then in theory you should get the years and the money they got,” Turner said. “So for owners to start pointing fingers and saying players are greedy, whether they think those (past) deals were bad or not, they’re the ones who gave those deals so they dropped the ball.

Now they’re punishing us for giving out these long deals, which is not how the game works historically. You give out these deals and someone is always going to come along and be better than that guy and someone is going to come along and be better than that guy.

“With the way the money in this game is going and growing and growing every year, revenue is going up ever year – I think it’s fairly easy for players to be confused that the free-agent market isn’t growing along with the revenue.” – Bill Plunkett, Orange County Register

I believe the players have been given some talking points from the union to help their public relations. However, it is important that those talking points be accurate.

The 100 Player Myth

From various players we’ve heard about the 100 or so players that are deserving of jobs but have not received a valid Major League contract. Jeff Passan blew the doors off of that claim.

I broke out a list of all the players that might fall into “deserves a major league contract.” You can see for yourself that there are still some good to great players available and they will get paid. However, when you hear of demands such as Craig Kimbrel wanting a 6 year contract for $100M, at the age of 30, those are not attainable. No GM, who wants to keep his job, will sign Kimbrel to a contract near that amount.

I’m sorry, but a player who has a WAR of under 1 is not worth much on the open market as he is easily replaced by a minimum wage 0-2 year player. Spending $250-$350M is a huge decision for any team, especially after so many of those have not worked out well (Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera). Even a contract like Zack Greinke signed with the Diamondbacks has basically caused them to trade their franchise player, Paul Goldschmidt.

The Luxury Tax

No matter what anybody says, the luxury tax threshold is an issue as it contains “real inside baseball economic stuff” . From JP Hoornstra’s excellent newsletter we are able to learn some of the details about the luxury tax than previously known.

Q: Regarding [Stan] Kasten’s comments at Fanfest, are there really “insidebaseball” advantages that fans aren’t aware of to staying below the luxury tax threshold? I’ve seen stories mention draft pick loss & escalating penalties, but is there anything else you are aware of?

A: Yes, but the basic principle is still the most important one: It’s a business tax. It’s money spent that does nothing to enhance your product. You can find the essential details of the tax, including the escalating penalties, in Section VI of this press release.

Since you asked, there are some underreported aspects to the competitive balance tax (CBT).

Start with where that tax money goes. If a team pays a tax, the first $13 million goes back to the players. Specifically, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it “shall be used to defray the Clubs’ funding obligations arising from the Major League Baseball Players Benefit Plan Agreements.” If a team pays more than $13 million in taxes in a single year, half of the remainder goes toward revenue sharing. Only teams that did not exceed the CBT threshold are eligible to receive these funds (the language of the CBA doesn’t specify how that money is to be distributed, though I assume it’s in writing somewhere). The other half goes into the players’ individual retirement accounts. Maybe the thought underlying Kasten’s sentiment was that, in a way, paying a luxury tax actually adds to your rivals’ internal budgets.

When I spoke to J.C. Bradbury, an expert in the economics of sports, for a recent column, he told me the rate of return on every dollar a team spends on players has diminished over the last 20-plus years. Simultaneously, Bradbury noted in a recent paper that the “returns to non-player inputs increased relative to MLB talent inputs.” Those “non-player inputs” include coaches, trainers, scouts, research and development folks, executives and other analysts. That doesn’t offer a direct comment on the luxury tax, but it’s a general endorsement for spending more on team employees whose salaries can’t be taxed. Knowing that the Dodgers have increased the size of their front office dramatically under Andrew Friedman, who was hired in Oct. 2014, this seems to be precisely what Kasten is doing. Maybe this is the “inside baseball economic stuff” he was referring to.

The bottom line with the luxury tax is that there isn’t a good business case for exceeding it. The hope that fans have is that a team feels close and is willing to go over the luxury tax to help win as the Red Sox did in 2018. If you recall, the Dodgers had a $241M payroll in 2017, before the new rules kicked in, then ran below the tax in 2018 and stayed under it. Of course, all these luxury tax rules were agreed to by the Players Association after the 2016 season.

Is There Collusion

I don’t know if there is collusion, and if there is, it is nothing like the late 1980’s:

Then there is this information from reliever Brad Brach, who signed with the Cubs:

So, yes, there are algorithms. Everyone should know this as there are plenty of public sites that give values to players such as Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. The real problem is that players and their union are way behind the times. All teams have ways of valuing players and it is no surprise they are similar. Brad Brach had a WAR of 0.3 so a contract of $4.35M seems to even be a bit above value if 1 WAR is worth $10M. Unless the Players Union hires someone like Andrew Friedman, they will continue to be about 5 years behind the owners, who rely on GMs that have changed the game. It is mind-boggling that the union does not understand these issues.

Teams Tanking

We know that teams are tanking in the hopes of acquiring better draft picks. Again, the union is partially to blame as they’ve collectively bargained away the bigger pool of bonuses. Teams don’t have to pay an unlimited bonus to draftees so there really is a lack of leverage for the player except to go back to school. The union also allowed the owners to limit spending on international players. It’s amazing that there are tanking teams that get revenue sharing. What is the incentive for teams to try and contend who aren’t close? Why pay Josh Harrison $5M for under 1 WAR when they can pay a rookie the minimum.

Service Time Manipulation

There have been instances of service time manipulation such as Kris Bryant and, currently, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. This allows teams to keep a player an extra year before free agency. Keeping players away from free agency or arbitration keeps their salaries down. Cody Bellinger and Walker Buehler will combine for almost $1.2M in salary in 2019 because they are not eligible for arbitration. Some players are playing at a lower salary during their prime and when they hit free agency, they are almost 30. Jacob deGrom, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, will not hit free agency until he’s 32. Good luck to him on cashing in after 2020.

Solutions

The solutions I have are high level but try to get to the root of the problems. The owners want to make money and the players need to maximize their earnings. Here are my high level suggestions for avoiding a stoppage in play after the 2021 season:

  • New Union Leadership
    • The current Players Association leadership is responsible for the awful CBA
    • Someone that understands the way the game has evolved needs a prominent role to negotiate with the owners and to educate the players
  • Pay Players Earlier
    • The current GMs have figured out that paying players over 30 is risky
    • Current GMs have figured out they can get most of a player’s best years at a relatively cheap price
    • Some players aren’t free agents until after they turn 30
    • A team can hold onto a player for over 12 years before they are a free agent
      • 3-4 years before they have to be on the 40 man roster
      • 3 years of options to the minors where they may gain little service time
      • 6 years of service time required to gain free agency
    • Shorten the years before someone needs to be on the 40 man roster
    • Reduce options to the minors from 3 to 2
    • Arbitration after 2 years service time
    • Raise the minimum wage significantly so that the cheap alternative option is reduced
  • Fix The Luxury Tax Penalties
    • Get rid of the “real inside baseball economic stuff” regarding the luxury tax penalties
    • Get rid of teams losing draft picks for signing free agents given qualifying offers
    • Get rid of the international signing penalties
  • Penalize Tanking Teams
    • If there is a luxury tax for spending too much, shouldn’t there be a penalty for spending too little?

Final Thoughts

I see a huge gap between the players and the owners. The current CBA is upside down for the players, as not many of them are not getting paid for their prime years. By the time they are in their prime they might hit free agency, yet teams do not want to pay for their post-prime years. Machado and Harper are exceptions as they enter free agency at the age of 26 and will cash in. For players on the Dodgers, they seem to do fine, as players like Kershaw, Turner, Kenley Jansen and Rich Hill got nice contracts to come back to the Dodgers despite being closer to 30 or older.

With an impending work stoppage, I do see a three year window for the Dodgers to win the World Series. After 2021 we have no idea when baseball will be played again. Once the stoppage finishes we have no idea what baseball will even look like. Sorry for the pessimism but I saw this coming quite a while back.

DODGERS: LOOKING AT THE 2019 OUTFIELD DEFENSE

Tim Rogers

A fan of the Dodgers since 1973 since I got my first baseball cards while living in Long Beach. I came to San Diego for college and never left nor did I ever switch my Dodgers' allegiance. Some know me as the "sweater guy". #ProspectHugger

29 Comments

  1. Excellent points, but a work stoppage, whether an owner lockout or a player economic strike, would be short lived, perhaps delaying 2022 spring training, but there is just too much money to be lost by owners and players to impact more than a few regular season games.

    1. I hope you are right but I’m afraid there are so many issues that need to be addressed that it will take a long time to fix. The players will want radical changes.

  2. Some reasonable ideas. And what about incentive contracts? That seems to solve a lot of problems. Players get paid for their value and owners have more incentive to sign players. I know it hasn’t been popular w players but it seems fair.

    1. I agree but I think that is a non-starter. The players are looking for financial security. Heck, they are making a big deal about a lot of players that aren’t even very good anymore.

  3. Good ideas.I’d like to add snother, incentive contracts! Players would get paid based on their true value and owners would have incentive to sign the players.

  4. A couple of thoughts on this brewing contract implosion. One of the questions the players have to ask is are teams unwilling to sign, in this case, Machado and Harper because of the money or because of the years they are asking for? I would think if Harper would take a 3 year 90M contact a team would give it to him but, if we believe the rumors, they want to up the last big salary. As mentioned in the article, GMs now have data to back them up that giving out 10 year contracts never end well for them and saddles the team with an albatross they can’t get rid of. Secondly, if the players want more money for the younger, upcoming stars, why not sign a contract with a bunch of incentives built in? In most businesses employees are paid a salary and then get a bonus on that year’s performance. Big year, big bonus. I understand that the teams would have to play fair and let the player play but if a team was accused of reducing a player’s playing time to avoid a bonus then there could be process for arbitration and penalty. I’m sure a solution can be created for this.

    But I can hear the players now, what if I get injured, what if the team is not in contention and the FO wants to play some rookies. Well, welcome to the real world. As a sales person, what if I got sick, had an accident or was effected by a natural disaster? What if one of the products I sold was being out performed by a competitor? Both would result in lower numbers and ultimately a lower bonus. I have never understood why an industry would sign their employees based on what they did in the past. Yes, I can see a bigger base salary and a bigger bonus potential based on a rainmaker but 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars on what a player might do doesn’t make sense. But, hey that just me.

  5. Turner seems naive with regard to market behavior. He and other players are like some New York City taxi medallion owners; they think prices can only go up. Prices go up and down even if the reasoning behind it is not always sound. We already know that the top players get overpaid on the basis of marginal pricing and for other reasons. Maybe two McCutcheons is worth more than one Machado not even counting for the reduction in risk.

  6. This was a good read. Thanks for some of those numbers and facts. Sort of unrelated, but really glad go see Harper’s War(1.3) posted. WAR doesn’t tell all, but it’s a good base. So many unknowing Dodger’s fans cried for his signing. He would be the lowest ranked WAR on the team if he was(Thankfully not). Also on the same topic, maybe just maybe, Harper hasn’t signed because owners and GM’s understand he’s not the superstar that some think he is.

    1. I think Harper has amazing talent and can be a lot better. The money he’s asking for makes him very risky. The Dodgers can absorb it but a team like the Padres would be in huge trouble.

    1. Here is another thing to consider…NO MLB TEAM will in fact win its division every single year. The Braves had 14 straight division titles and got 1 WC out of it. Other than 2013 and last year, see that the braves really haven’t been heard from since.

  7. 1. If the Dodgers don’t win a WS title in the next year or two, I’m done with them and baseball after 65 years.

    2. Both sides – the millionaires and billionaires – can go to Hell if they have a work stoppage.

  8. Could someone explain what the players could conceivably hope to gain by going on strike? Cnb is right on. Pay the young players more and earlier. Cut down the time to reach free agency. Pay them for what they are doing now, not what they did in the past. There is just to much information available now about when and how players decline. Players don’t quite grasp the reality of what’s happening in the baseball world. Owners are now going to require opt out clauses and who could blame them? Then the players could have 10 year contracts again.

    1. I think they might need to strike to get the reductions we both spoke about. The owners are quite happy with everything so they won’t just give in.

  9. If the players union is able to get a universal designated batter rule thru-out major league baseball, I’m through with baseball anyway! 10 man baseball is NOT a game I enjoy watching. It is NOT baseball, Where would Babe Ruth be with 10 man baseball? Maybe I’ll learn to like soccer…

  10. I honestly, had a hard time reading through this article. There is plenty to be said about these negotiations coming up. But i read this as billionaires, squabbling with MMillionaires…. I love the game. I love sports. but…… c’mon….. just stop. 10 years 300 mil…. Remember Machado’s so called offer from the ChiSox at 7 years 175MM. His agent and most sports pundits came out with hellacious fire that, that contract was absurd and disrespectful to his talent. Why do you get paid even 1 million dollars a year to play a game?…..

    Yes he is talented, Harper is as well, Trout may be one of the best, Mookie, all these guys. But why do we accept that they make upwards of 15 to 25 MILLION dollars a year?????!!!!! I think THAT should be the next biggest question in sports in general. there is no reason. PERIOD.

    I understand they are extremely talented (in sports…. a game….) but these contracts are getting out of hand. Most of the sports world has come to accept that these are the types of contracts, the type of money that should be dealt out to these athletes. To kids who are in there 20s! no disrespect, i am in my 20s too… But after all it is a game nonetheless, and they do not need these absurdly inflated contracts because they have extreme athletic ability…

    Just had to say my piece on this absurdity.
    That said I hope the Dogders are prepared to sign the likes of Seager, Bellinger, Buehler, Urias, Ruiz when the time comes of or before their FA.
    A little hypocritical there.
    Backlash?

  11. Someone explain to me how so much payroll inequity in MLB is good for competition.

  12. If these players are so worried about players being paid a fair wage, why isn’t there a single one that has stepped up and spoken out about minor leaguers being paid less than 10k a year?

  13. Tim you and I are not far apart on this. I have been a Dodgers fan since 1977. The GM’s are mostly running this show and Stan Kasten comes from that incredible Braves front office and team that simply wouldn’t go away. LoL
    All joking aside you’re 100% correct. I really don’t understand how the players union doesn’t understand that 10 yr contracts or megadeals are organization killers and the best way to ensure you don’t win the WS especially with the new CBT and it’s rules under this CBA. The GM’s are starting to take control like the NBA GM’s and coaches. I was relieved to see Will Demps fired he absolutely failed to act in the teams best interest after they’ve failed to provide AD any support. Had he done his due dilligence or just been slightly less stubborn/pig headed he would’ve executed a trade that would’ve shaped the Pelicans future into a playoff/title contending, highly respected and followed class organization for many years to come. Instead he is an unemployed joke. Professional sports are a business not just entertainment and they’re a big business. The most important part that makes a business successful is that it executes it’s purpose which is to generate profit, don’t be mad at the owners when they run this company the way they run the rest of their companies or hire the best CEO’s to do it for them……

  14. Good post. MLB and the players should eliminate arbitration and set up a performance bonus structure across the board based on something like WAR that’s paid players from year 1 until FA. The bonuses paid should be exempt from luxury tax. Players like Betts and even Muncy get paid immediately for their contributions.

  15. Another strike would be ruinous for baseball. All sides must not let greed kill “the golden goose”. There is enough money in the game to satisfy all parties involved. Greed Kills. And, it turns off fans. If baseball goes on strike, soccer is ready to fill the vacuum.

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