December 21, 2002
More On Floyd:
I had two posts on Floyd yesterday. One was about Floyd going to the Orioles. As the previous post points out, Floyd actually went to the Mets (scroll down). Interestingly, the Sun took down the article that I originally linked to claiming that Floyd was for the Birds.
When it seemed that Floyd was going to Baltimore, I speculated that the luxury tax was having a different effect than what was intended; it was spreading talent around, not by poor teams getting more money to spend, but by mid-level teams having access to free agents because the big teams couldn't afford to sign them. Of course, with the Mets signing Floyd, I'm not sure that statement is really valid either.
What is clearly valid is that the luxury tax is really a salary cap. Teams are going out of their way to avoid the level at which the tax will kick in. This is probably better than the owners had wanted in terms of controlling salaries, but it isn't going to do anything to help Montreal or KC or Minnesota's ability to spend more on players. It's not going to help Tampa Bay compete with the Yankees. It's not going to even help Milwaukee compete with the Cardinals or Astros. I feel bad for the fans of these teams who thought the new agreement was going to level the playing field. It helps some of the mid-level team, but it doesn't spread enough money to give all teams a chance, because given a method of avoiding taxes, they will be avoided.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:30 AM
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Baseball