With the Fall Classic coming to an end, another Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series champion has been crowned. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in only five games to win their second World Series in the last five seasons. Sports fans got a great showing of talent from the stars of these two teams. Viewers saw first-year Dodger and National League MVP Shohei Ohtani win his first World Series in his first trip to the postseason. We saw Yankee star Aaron Judge make it to the first World Series of his career. Besides competing in this year’s World Series, these two teams have something else in common: money.
New York and Los Angeles rank first and second in market sizes for cities with an MLB team according to CBS. The Yankees had the second-highest total payroll, and the Dodgers had the fifth-highest for the 2024 season. Is it a coincidence that the last nine World Series champions have all been top ten market teams? Or that since 2000, 21 of the 24 World Series champions have been top 10 in market size? I don’t think so.
Looking at this past season’s Detroit Tigers, the Tigers ranked 26 out of 30 in total payroll according to Spotrac. The Tigers exceeded many people’s expectations and made it into the playoffs, receiving the last wild card spot in the American League. In their wild card series, the entirety of the Tigers roster’s salary was just $18.8 million per Sporting News. While this was the combined amount for all 26 men on the Tigers roster, their opponent, the Houston Astros, had three players who each made more than that individually.
Now looking at the Cincinnati Reds, they have only made one postseason appearance in the last 11 years. They have not made it past the wild card series since 2012, and they have not reached the World Series since their last victory in 1990.
So why such a lack of success? Dating back to 2012, which was the last time the Reds won a playoff series, they have been around the 20th highest average payroll spot. This puts them easily in the bottom half of the league. Cincinnati is also the second smallest city in terms of sports market size.
Comparing the 2024 Reds and the 2024 Dodgers
The Reds made $65 million in ticket sales, while the Dodgers made $211 million according to Forbes. The Reds had an average ticket price of $25, while a ticket to Dodgers stadium cost an average $52. This gave the Reds a total revenue of $315 million in 2024, while the Dodgers was $549 million. The MLB can not expect the Reds to compete with these numbers.
This sparks a debate about what must come first. One cannot expect Reds fans to show up the way Dodgers fans do when the Reds have only had three seasons finishing over .500 in the last 10 seasons. But if fans do not show up, the MLB cannot expect the Reds to have enough money to sign and re-sign star players that give them a chance at winning.
A team like the New York Mets has a total salary just shy of $320 million, but a team like the Oakland Athletics has a salary of just over $63 million. How does the MLB expect its teams to be able to compete with one another? This is due to the fact that the MLB is the only major American sports league without a salary cap.
The National Football League, National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer all have hard caps, which means no team is allowed to spend more than a set amount of money on their roster that season. The National Basketball Association has a soft cap, which means teams can go over the set amount, but they have to pay a luxury tax.
The MLB has no salary cap, giving the big market teams an extreme advantage over small market teams. This is why the Dodgers can give out $700 million dollar contracts, while a team like the Oakland Athletics have never given out a contract over $75 million.
I do not believe that the small market teams will ever be able to truly compete with the big markets like New York and Los Angeles until a major change comes. A team can spend almost $300 million dollars more than another team, and expect the other team to be able to compete.
If I am a star player like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, or Juan Soto, it would not make sense for me to go to a team that has no chance of winning or of building a winning roster around me, when I can go to teams like the Yankees and Dodgers and get a huge payout, plus a shot at the World Series every year.
If you are looking to see the Reds back in the World Series, something needs to change in the economy of the MLB. These big market teams will go into every season with a huge advantage over everyone else. Until this change occurs, I believe that we will keep seeing Los Angeles and New York in the Fall Classic.
