This weekend, three teams — the Yankees, Dodgers and Angels — swept their way into the MLB league championship series. Those teams also reside in the two largest media markets and have payrolls over $100 million. Is baseball being taken over by big market teams?
This question has resonated for years with MLB’s lack of a salary cap.
Big market teams have taken some of the parody out of baseball, especially in the American League. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels have been three of the four playoff teams in four of the past six years. Only the Central has consistently been up for grabs in the American League.
Small market teams can compete with the big dogs — as we’ve seen with recent World Series runs by the Rays, Rockies and Marlins — but their window for success often lies in one magical season.
Tampa Bay went from losing 96 games in 2007 to beating the Yankees and Red Sox and winning the AL East last year. Knocking the Yankees out of the playoffs might not have been the smartest move as New York used the offseason to buy the top talent available and Tampa Bay missed the playoffs this season. Will the Rays be able to keep their young talent long enough to continue to compete in the AL East? Highly doubtful.
The Rockies used two of the greatest runs in MLB history to make the playoffs this season and in 2007, but have spent a majority of the decade in the basement of the NL West.
How’s this team sound? A lineup with Ivan Rodriguez, Derrek Lee, Luis Castillo, Mike Lowell, Juan Pierre and Miguel Cabrera along with a pitching staff of Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Dontrelle Willis, Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett. Meet the 2003 Marlins. Fast forward six years and none of those stars are on Florida’s roster. The Marlins gear themselves for one-year runs — which has produced two World Series rings — but Florida is unable to keep their talent for long periods of time.
Fans of small market teams must deal with rebuilding seasons and turning top players into 20-year-old hopefuls for one-year runs — and that’s for the successful teams. There are many more examples of small market franchises that haven’t even sniffed the playoffs this decade — the Royals, Nationals, Pirates and Reds.
So for fans of teams with owners not willing to break the bank: Hope your prospects turn into Hanley Ramirez, embrace the “rebuilding process” and if by chance you make the playoffs, cherish the moment because it may not happen again for a long time.
Just ask the Oakland A’s — the team that held the blueprint for small market success — how the past three years have been.
