Alex Black

Good afternoon readers,

Recently I've been reading up on a lot of MLB financing debates, and one that interested me was “dead money” on MLB rosters. Dead money refers to salary paid to a player who will not play a game for that team. Sometimes its via trade, where one team will pay a partial percentage of a players salary to get another team to pick him up, the most recent big example of this being the Colorado Rockies paying upwards of 50 million dollars of 3rd baseman Nolan Arenado's contract when they traded him to St. Louis.

Because there is no official salary cap, teams pay a “luxury tax” when they breach the $233,000,000 (updated for 2023) threshold. As of 2021, the taxation percentage is 20% of their overage for the first season, 30% the next season, and 50% the next. This can be extremely alarming to teams like the New York Mets, who despite having a multibillionaire owner currently sit at an estimated tax bill of over 100 million. Big signings like Justin Verlander and Kodai Senga, as well as retentions like Brandon Nimmo have ballooned their total payroll, but also the releases of Darin Ruf costs them 3million this year and 500k next year, and Orioles catcher James McCann receiving 11/12 million of his 2023 salary from the Mets.

So, you might ask “Why do I care about some billionaire dork losing money?” and you should say “I don't, this guy reeks”. But I would like to advocate for who it affects the most. The young guy. The 23-25 year old kid who deserves his spot on the roster just as much as anyone, but won't get to play because of an overpaid salary X years previously to some guy he might never meet. The main roster is usually comprised of 25 guys, with the different levels of the minor leagues having 28-30 each. That's over 100 guys at any given time in the organization, and 25 of them get to play in the majors at a time. 70-80% of your organization isn't playing at the major league level, so to drop millions on guys outside the organization affects the development of the young guys who need it most. Now sometimes, a guy gets hurt, and your next in line isn't ready just yet.

This is the case in Minnesota, where top shortstop prospect Royce Lewis who tore his ACL twice in 2020 and 2022 which takes you out for around a year, and will miss half of the 2023 season as well. This offseason we settled with Carlos Correa for a 6 year deal, but where does that leave Royce Lewis? Selected first overall in the 2017 draft, he has only had 40 at bats at the major league level, performing well with a .300 average last season before his injury.

While many teams might be in the “win now, pay later” mentality, signing these guys (who are still the best players in the world and deservedly so) to giant big money longterm deals leave you with a 38 year old player making 20 million dollars a year, blocking the development of your rookie talent at the major league level.

P.S. I really gotta right about something thats not baseball

by Your friend and comrade