Teams That Spend to Keep Their Stars Is What's RIGHT with Baseball

In days gone by, stars were associated with teams.  Williams, DiMaggio, Mantle, Koufax, Mays, Kaline, Musial, Cobb.  Was there any doubt that star and team had a shared identity and that this was part of the magic of baseball?  In 2009, the big story for the Yankees became the “core four”; a story of a team that found a way to keep its stars over a 14 year run in an era of free agency; Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Pettitte—what a great story!

But how about the other great “core 4” stories that COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BUT WEREN’T because of team owners who just decided to cash out?  How about the core 4 of the 1994 Montreal Expos?  Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland, Larry Walker, and Moises Alou?  How about the core 4 of the 1997 Florida Marlins? Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Moises Alou, Gary Sheffield?

All core 4s would cost $50MM or so to keep (based on peak salaries) but only one of these teams stepped up to the plate…the Yankees.  Why castigate the Yankees for their payroll spending?  More teams should do that—spend what it takes to hang onto their stars.  The Yankees are a special team across the country and even the world; the Washington Nationals and the Marlins are mostly a joke in terms of home interest and draw on the road. NOT hanging onto your core 4 is what’s WRONG with baseball.

Also, let’s debunk right now that the Yankees are just a free-agent team; over half ( 8 of 13) who played in the final World Series game came up through the farm system or were traded for home grown talent (A-Rod was obtained in a super-star trade for Soriano).  (Similarly, the Phillies had 7 home grown players, the Angels had 9 of 18, and the Dodgers had 8 of 17 in their last game.) Again, home grown, keep your stars—tough, but needed in an era of free agency.  On the other hand, The Mets only had 3 of 14 players who were home-grown on opening day—a team of hired guns that had horrible clubhouse karma.

Baseball needs to ENCOURAGE teams to hold onto their stars, not single them out for over-spending.  Teams that held onto their own talent were the ones that made it all the way, not the hired gun or grow ‘em and dump ‘em teams. It’s the under-spenders that are ruining fan interest.  That’s where the salary cap needs to go, on the bottom end.