The Pittsburgh Pirates: A Darker Side To Revenue Sharing

Considering this week’s “Everything Must Go at Rock Bottom Prices” sale by the Pittsburgh Pirates, it’s time to re-evaluate the status of the salary cap in Major League Baseball.

Looking at last year’s top three spenders (Yankees, Mets, and Tigers), does anything strike you as bizarre? That’s right—none of those three teams made the playoffs, and the Tigers finished dead last in the AL Central.

The thriftiest teams last year were the Oakland A’s, Tampa Bay Rays, and Florida Marlins. While the A’s were horrible, finishing 24.5 games out of first place, the Marlins finished with a winning record, and the Rays even made it to the World Series, not to mention winning 97 games, good for second best in the majors.

Money doesn’t necessarily buy a good team.

The Yankees and Mets are known for going out and throwing money at free agents. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Marlins and Rays extensively use their farm systems. By scouting well and developing players, it’s possible to cut costs while still being a contender.

This doesn’t excuse the behavior of the Pirates. Pittsburgh has shipped off so many players they should be investigated by the United Nations under human trafficking regulations.

Since 2003, they’ve traded away Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, Freddy Sanchez, Aramis Ramirez, Jason Kendall, Xavier Nady, Jack Wilson, and Ian Snell among others. Had they kept that team intact, we could be talking about the Pirates as World Series contenders.

Not that it’s a whole lot different than the infamous Marlins fire sales after their two World Series wins. The difference is the Marlins have won two World Series championships since the last time the Pirates have even had a winning record, which was 1992.

Did I mention the Marlins weren’t even a team until 1993?

This brings us to the issue of revenue sharing, implemented to help smaller market teams (such as the Pirates) earn enough money to keep the franchise from going under.

The trading frenzy this week has shown the world how eager the Pirates are to exploit the system for financial gain. Going into this year, their total team salary was $48.74 million—third lowest in the majors. Having dealt McLouth, Sanchez, Wilson, and Snell this year alone, their team salary is now nearly $8 million below the Florida Marlins for cheapest in the league.

As a fan of competition, I’m insulted.

Only seven players on the Pirates make more than $1 million. This opens the door for team management to abuse revenue sharing for a large financial gain.

Attendance will drop even lower for the rest of the season, and because of revenue sharing, it won’t negatively affect Pirates ownership. They’ll still get a big fat check for putting a team on the field so bad they could lose more games than the Nationals.

The real losers here are the fans. As cheap as the Marlins are, they still win games, and have a consistent fan base throughout the country.

Pirates fans may cease to exist. I expected better from a team that’s been in business since the 1880s.

To keep more owners from exploiting the system like this, there should not only be a maximum salary cap, but a minimum cap as well. There’s no excuse for only paying a major league team $29 million as a whole, and at the same time, spending $200 million creates a disadvantage for teams that actually do have a hard time offering contracts to superstars that could make their team better.

Individual player salaries would become more reasonable and competition would intensify. Fans would set record attendance highs and more merchandise would be sold. Every team would be out to win instead of just make money.

Implementing salary caps could be what helps baseball turn the corner and distance itself from the steroid era.