Travis Sawchik notes that MLB players share of revenue fell greatly over the last 15 years. Front offices became more efficient, and the free agency rules that served players well for a quarter of a century suddenly worked against them.
At one point, the prospect of a salary cap was bad for players. But teams are operating differently now; they’re seeking efficiency. They’re often operating more rationally given the rules in place, with a better understanding of aging curves and performance value. (Though one could argue some teams have cost themselves modestly priced wins in preference for greater efficiency.) Free agency has largely been de-emphasized. In a perfect world, a team would have a roster full of homegrown, pre-arb stars. There is no mechanism in place forcing owners to spend. Grow found that players’ share of revenue had peaked at 56% in 2002 and declined to 38% in 2015.
Ironically, a cap (with a floor) system, against which the MLBPA has fought in the past (see: the 1994 strike), would perhaps now best serve players.
Management has shown itself adept at exploiting the rules of how to pay players, so let’s add another rule! That will get them!
MLB teams do not put rules in place to benefit the players. They put rules in place to benefit the low revenue teams. Back in the 1950s, when amateur players were free agents, bonus baby rules were put into place to hamper the Yankees ability to sign the best young players. Of course, the Yankees cheated and got teams like Kansas City to sign these players. The expectation was that they would be traded to the Yankees when they were ready to contribute. So teams instituted a new rule, taking away amateur free agency to institute a draft so teams no longer had to compete for talent with dollars.
Of course, amateurs could still refuse to sign if they didn’t get top dollar, so some of these poorer teams started looking for cheap talent elsewhere. Out of that search sprang the Dominican Republic baseball academy. This was a great conduit of talent, and allowed teams like the Blue Jays to develop into formidable franchises. Eventually, the richer teams discovered that they could get cheap talent that way, and started competing for these players, driving up the price. Hence the cap on international signings, and cheating by the Braves and the Red Sox.
Maybe, instead of adding rules, it’s time to step back and re-evaluate the whole system. Something that worked in 1976, or 1986, or 1996, may not be the right system for today. Make a system with as few rules as possible, so that teams can’t get in trouble by breaking rules. I would like to see something like, “All players are free agents as amateurs, and whenever their contract runs out. There is a minimum MLB salary of $1 million dollars. Teams are limited to a 40-man major league roster, and a 120-man minor league roster. Note that teams would have a tough time stockpiling players, since a talented minor league player whose path was blocked to the majors could move on to another team when his contract was up.
Of course, the current system will tough to undo. Management learned to use the system the players desired to their advantage. They will not give up that advantage easily. It may take a number of CBAs to change things, but the MLBPA should fight for zero compensation for free agency, a shorter time period for free agency (with a year of arbitration eliminated for each year cut), and seasons played instead of service time to determine free agency. Let players capture their value as early as possible, and don’t give teams reasons to game the system.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2iDvv6r
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