I wasn’t planning on making any baseball observations for a few months but something happened this week that begs to be discussed. I know baseball purists have railed against the Yankees for years as obliterating the supposed level playing field when it comes to free agents. But I am now ready to also throw the Boston Red Sox under the bus. With the way the Japanese baseball league deals with its players is, if they want to be released from their obligation to the team to play in the States, teams must bid for their rights to negotiate with that team. So basically this is pure profit for the Japanese team. Previously, the highest price paid simply to bid for the rights to sign a player was $13 million that the Seattle Mariners paid for Ichiro Suzuki. In hindsight, this might be considered a “bargain” when you’re dealing with the hyper-reality that is major league baseball salaries.
The Red Sox took it to the next level this week. All teams interested in bidding for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is a highly coveted Japanese pitcher. The bids were sealed and the Japanese team had the right to accept or deny the highest bidder. They wound up accepting the Red Sox bid of 51.1 million dollars, which was 20 million higher than the Yankees offered. Think about that for a moment – the Red Sox paid over FIFTY ONE MILLION DOLLARS just for the RIGHTS to bid for his services. It doesn’t guarantee he’ll sign with them. In fact, if it takes more than 30 days, his rights are returned to his current ballclub and the Red Sox get their money back.
Bud Selig might try to dupe the public into saying we’re in an age of parity when teams like the Tigers and Twins and A’s make the playoffs, but these truly are aberrations. But when the total amount they paid just to talk to him was more than the 2006 opening day payrolls in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Tampa Bay and Florida, he couldn’t be further from the truth. The Red Sox have spent more on this guy before even giving HIM any money than these 5 clubs, and somehow this is a level playing field?
At the top you have the Yankees and Red Sox and the Mets (who are newcomers to the Free-Spending Club). You then have several upper middle level clubs who have somewhat of a chance at winning it all. Then there are at least 15 clubs who might, once every 20 years, strike gold and have a magical season that trumps everything but for the most part they are simply a glorified farm team for the richer clubs.
Yeah, yeah, it might be capitalism at its best if you forget that they’re under a special antitrust protection. The problem is, unlike when I was growing up, teams like the Royals and Brewers and Pirates actually had a chance at winning the World Series. There is no reason for a kid living in these cities nowadays to ever get too attached to a team that will never win it all.
What I DO know is that with that kind of “mad money” just floating out there, I want in on that action. This is even a bigger scam than the NFL’s Public Seat License moneymaking scheme. Here I was thinking all “small scale” if I ever came into “mad money” by giving people $1,000 on the street to get on all fours and bark like a dog. That’s peanuts compared to spending 1/20th of a billion dollars just to negotiate with someone.
Of course, I keep the Cubs out of any aspect of this conversation. Even though they’re in the upper-middle tier in terms of salary, they have no chance. Ever.