I am a baseball fan. I enjoy the game, the players, the developing stories of a game. The history (even the imperfections.) The contributions of wonderful men and women to the pastime of baseball. Despite this, there is much I wish to dissent about the game of baseball. Before reading further, I am no expert on the economics of baseball. I’m just a fan. My dissent and solutions are just ideas…

I dissent with the rampant greed within the game. I’m going to start with the owners. The billionaires club. This entitled group holds their city hostage in order to keep the club in their city. The most recent problem owner, John Fisher of the Oakland Athletics, held the city of Oakland responsible for a new stadium as the Oakland Coliseum needed vast improvements to meet the new guidelines… blah blah blah… in order to make money… I will also hold Ted Ricketts of the Chicago Cubs ownership group for receiving grants, tax breaks, and incentives for remodeling Wrigley Field partially on the tax payers dime. I’m sorry if you are a billionaire, you should be able to do the renovations on your dime, or at least build your own stadium. Why do the tax payers always have to socialize the billionaire sect on stadiums and what not.

I feel sorry for the Oakland fans, and baseball fans in general as they now have seen this team move from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland to Sacramento, and then to Las Vegas. I imagine the club will move eastward again around my 105th birthday to Omaha most likely, cause the heat was too much or some such cockamamie b.s. that billionaires always use to rationalize their greed.

The next problem are the billionaires that buy the best assets (players) for their team and then charge the fans for their overextension of salary. This paragraph is devoted to the Los Angeles Dodgers. A couple of years ago the Dodgers dropped $1.2B on two players. Both players are Japanese superstars who are impressively skilled at the game. Are they worth that much money? No! Congratulations for getting that lucrative contract though. I just feel sorry for your fans that have to support that salary. The Dodgers continue to stockpile superstars through trades and free agent signings. They nearly have an all star team compared to my Nationals. Ticket prices for a Dodgers game are astronomical. Bleacher seats are $100 on StubHub. If you want to sit behind the infield have thousands in your bank account. Go up a level and behind the plate and the tickets are $200-$300 a piece for one game. At this rate, I will not be able to afford to finish our stadium chase before I die.

The Dodgers are spending $430.5M on salary this year. https://athlonsports.com/mlb/every-team-payroll-in-2026

Here are the rest of the clubs:

• New York Mets – $370.5M
• New York Yankees – $336.4M
• Philadelphia Phillies – $314.9M
• Toronto Blue Jays – $307M
• Boston Red Sox – $267.7M
• Atlanta Braves – $257.8M
• San Diego Padres – $257.6M
• Chicago Cubs – $253.9M
• Detroit Tigers – $233.9M
• San Francisco Giants – $232.3M
• Arizona Diamondbacks – $231.5M
• Houston Astros – $231.3M
• Baltimore Orioles – $216.6M
• Texas Rangers – $208.8M
• Los Angeles Angels – $195.7M
• Seattle Mariners – $194.9M
• Kansas City Royals – $186.1M
• Cincinnati Reds – $150.4M
• Milwaukee Brewers – $142.5M
• Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland/Sacramento Athletics – $141.2M
• Colorado Rockies – $135.7M
• Pittsburgh Pirates – $134.6M
• Minnesota Twins – $130.5M
• Chicago White Sox – $123.4M
• Washington Nationals – $116.7M
• St. Louis Cardinals – $111.6M
• Tampa Bay Rays – $111.3M
• Cleveland Guardians – $85.7M
• Miami Marlins – $82.3M

The Dodgers are spending $348.2M more on players than the Miami Marlins. That is $6.1933B for baseball players salaries across the entire league. The average team salary is $206.44M. 15/30 teams lie below the average. The Dodgers double the league average. The Marlins are only $33M and change shy of being three times below the average team salary. We the fan are paying for this through our ticket sales, merchandise purchases, and television viewing. $6B in salaries for baseball, and most of the owners are still making gobs of money in profits after spending that much money on salary, stadium, and support staffing expenses. It is just gross how much money that is.

I feel a salary cap needs to be implemented within the MLB. I also feel a minimum and maximum club salary scale needs to be implemented for owners too. This salary cap needs to consider years in the league as well as perceived value based on performance. If a club were to exceed the club salary scale then they need to split revenues with the other 29 ball clubs based on the percentage past 100%. By limiting the money spent on salaries and limiting what owners can spend this should transfer to lower ticket costs, merchandising, and more competitive television contracts theoretically. I want to see this happen, because I think we should be more economically competitive to invite the Japanese Nippon Baseball League into the MLB, and eventually other professional leagues. Why not have a legitimate World Series?

If we were to have a league minimum and cap, here are my numbers (based on 2026 salaries): $140M for minimum salary. $300M Cap. Nine teams would have to increase their salary, five teams would have to decrease their salary or pay penalties (Penalties – to be negotiated.) 18 teams would be meeting the salary standard with the Athletics and Red Sox being the low and high respectfully on this proposal.

Now the players have benefitted greatly from free agency over the years. I understand players wanting to earn millions of dollars based on their performance, length of season, and wear and tear on their bodies. The minimum salary in baseball is $780K or $4.18K per ball game. The highest salary this year is $61M at $376,543 per game. If this does not offend you, I’m not sure anything offends you. Juan Soto (a former National,) who is an excellent ball player is making more per game than my wife and I make together in four years as teachers I like Juan Soto, but I don’t think he needs to earn that much money per game. Even at the league minimum salary per game this salary eclipses my take home salary after taxes per month. Only in baseball do we pay millions to a player who hits the ball safely 25% of the time, fields error free 97% of the time, and pitches to a 4.00 or higher earned run average once every five days as a starter. (A professional musician would have to pay someone to listen to them if they only hit 25% of the notes… just think about it…)

With a baseball labor strike most likely in 2027 over salary caps and what not, I just have one thing to ask. How much is enough? $780K is a great living for 210 work days when you include spring training (Everything above this must be negotiated between the club and the player.)

I just know the current paradigm in Major League Baseball is unsustainable. We have millionaires arguing with billionaires. Let’s look at other concessions to make this happen. In exchange for a minimum and maximum salary schedule, owners must fund their stadiums with the ownership group. No outside tax assistance is allowed from their host community. The MLB ownership groups need to be firm on this. We can’t have owners holding communities responsible for their stadiums (Jerry Reinsdorf, I’m writing to you here personally.) Strengthen this ownership group by offering shares into the team to the fans and players. This should be a community franchise, not just a billionaire bragging right franchise. (See Green Bay Packers, though I am envious of this franchises success.)

Players concessions for agreeing to a new salary cap will be more rights involving trades in season. A Player could say no to any trade at anytime. I think a better pension system could be put into place. Players with five seasons of experience receive a full pension (40% of league minimum salary, ascending from there.) I’m not sure how this would be funded, but it needs to be considered for career players who never have flashy contracts. The final concession for agreeing to the salary cap would be injury settlements. Catastrophic injuries that end a career prematurely before five years service time, need to be given an injury settlement (percentage of minor league service and/or major league service.) I can think of dozens of players who lost their careers due to Tommy John, Thoracic Outlet, and ACL/Joint injuries. These injuries could create problems for the players lives post baseball. Think of it as an MLB Worker’s Compensation program.

I dissent with the billionaires and millionaires arguing over big salaries when there are dozens of players happy to be making league minimum or slightly more per year based on their experience. I’m tired of billionaires holding the fan and community responsible for their team’s socialized success. I also want to see a business model that allows for international expansion of the league and the World Series. The success of MLB has been largely responsible due to the players from around the globe. Why not find a way to bolster the international game?

If I were the commissioner of MLB I would be seeding both sides of this labor strife with multiple options now in order to try to sway or avoid a labor stoppage for the 2027 season. Now I’m going to grieve as the Nationals traded my favorite player to the Yankees… Good luck Luis Garcia Jr., I’m going to miss you kid!!! …so it goes…