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Despite back-to-back seasons with at least one team lagging far, far behind any other and reaching near-record levels of losing, Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Rob Manfred is defending the owners.
Manfred, who represents the heads of the 30 MLB franchises, said some owners who are viewed as cheap are doing so because they know that they won't be able to compete with the biggest spenders in the majors.
“I think that when you see a situation where the fans feel, ‘Gee, he's not spending, he's not spending,' usually this is the thinking that goes on. ‘I'm making money on my operations year in and year out. Pick a number. I'm making 20 million bucks, right?' So the owner goes to his analytics guy and says, ‘You know, look, I can put another $20 million into payroll.' And the analytics guy tells him, “Look, the expectation is with $20 million more in payroll, you're going to win two more games, and that's it. Because you're still going to be $150 million less than the big boys,'” Manfred said on ‘Pardon My Take.'
“That's the conundrum that those owners find themselves in. They don't have the capacity to spend to get close enough to make themselves more competitive. And we need to fix that for the benefit of the fans in those markets.”
Over the years, there have been numerous owners criticized for seemingly not doing whatever they could to build a contender. The Florida Marlins infamously orchestrated a fire sale after winning the 1997 World Series, and more recently, fans have maintained their focus on a few teams, in particular: the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, and the former Oakland Athletics.
The Rockies, among the group, are by far the highest spenders; in 2025, their total payroll is $126 million, 10th-lowest in MLB but nearly $40 million more than the next highest in the fivesome, the Pirates. However, Colorado also has — by far — the worst record of the group, having lost 75 of its 99 games so far this season, which puts them on pace for just 39 wins, which would unseat the 2024 White Sox for the worst 162-game record in history. The Rockies, as long as they do not win more than 47 games, would become the fourth team in the last eight years to finish with a sub-.300 record.
Fans of the Athletic, Rockies, Pirates, Marlins, and White Sox have each called for their respective owners to sell the team, citing their overall unwillingness or inability to spend enough or effectively enough to make the playoffs on a semi-consistent basis. Athletics fans, though, have been even more vocal, considering A's owner John Fisher moved the team out of Oakland in favor of a temporary home in Sacramento before, he hopes, moving to Las Vegas.
Currently, MLB remains the only major North American sports league without a salary cap and, possibly more importantly, a salary floor.
