Category Archives: Owners

December 18, 2025

Twins Jigger Ownership

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The Pohlad family, owners of the Twins, sold some stakes in the club and moved a different family member into the leadership role. Tom Pohlad takes over the helm:

“It is a profound honor to have the opportunity to continue a legacy that has been part of my family — and this community — for the past 40 years,” said Tom Pohlad said in a statement distributed by the Twins. “My uncle and my brother have led this organization with integrity, dedication, and a genuine love for the game. As I assume my new role, I do so with great respect for our history and a clear focus on the future — one defined by accountability and stewardship in our relentless pursuit of a championship.”

ESPN.com

Tom Pohlad becomes involved with the club for the first time. He previously oversaw the family’s business portfolio. He is saying the right thing in his statement, using the word “relentless.” They are in a division with stars but no super strong team. It’s the type of division where the right moves can move a club to the top quickly. We’ll see if the new ownership group can take advantage of that opportunity.

November 19, 2025

Competitive Balance

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Rob Manfred spoke today about a number of issues and competitive balance made the cut:

Manfred said labor has been addressed at the owners meetings this week, but he declined to elaborate on those discussions.

“What I would say about the issue of competitive balance is that we have a significant segment of our fans that have been vocal about the issue of competitive balance and in general we try to pay attention to our fans,” Manfred said. “So it is a topic of conversations.”

ESPN.com

Current revenue sharing rewards poor revenue generating teams and poor performance, as the two tend to go together. Instead of discussing salary caps and floors, MLB should talk about increasing incentives that lead to building at least an interesting team, or even better, one that wins.

I would propose that 50% of team revenue goes into a pool. You do not have baseball if there are no opponents, so 50% of team revenue would be used to pay for the opponents. (I suspect it work as well with a 60/40 home road split, but let’s keep it simple.) That would include ticket sales, concession sales, local TV revenue, and local radio revenue.

The simplest way to divide that money would be to give each team an even share. That does not give that much of an incentive to build an interesting, winning team, however . MLB would come up with a formula that takes into account a team’s road attendance (or % of capacity), road TV ratings, road radio ratings, and winning percentage. We want to reward teams that are interesting to watch, but we also want to reward teams that win. I suppose one could even factor secondary market ticket prices into the equation. In the end, the best road draws/winners would get somewhat more than 1/30th of the pool, and the worst road draws/losers would get somewhat less than 1/30th of the pool.

Yes, the current big teams do well under this system, but that is a good reason for them to accept it. This would replace the luxury tax, end talks of salary floors or ceilings, and lead to less subsidizing of non-competitive teams. A system like this might work much better than the current one. This is a bold move the MLBPA could propose, rather than playing defense against a salary cap.

October 7, 2025

Rays Owners Speak

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The new owners of the Tampa Bay Rays held a news conference. They want to play the entire season at a rehabbed Tropicana Field and move into a new stadium for 2029:

Zalupski and other top executives Ken Babby and Bill Cosgrove said at a news conference Tuesday they intend for the team to remain in the Tampa Bay area.

Zalupski said the search is on for a site in the region that could include roughly 100 acres (40 hectares) that would support retail shops, bars, restaurants and other amenities along with a ballpark. The stadium itself, he said, would be a domed ballpark with a fixed roof.

“We need a new ballpark. I don’t think that’s disputed by anyone,” Zalupski said. “We want to build a sustainable championship team. We’re confident we can be successful in Tampa Bay.”

ESPN.com

Maybe owners should stop trying to be real estate developers and just build a ballpark. That might make things a lot simpler.

September 22, 2025

Rays Sale Approved

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MLB owners approved the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays:

Major League Baseball owners voted unanimously Monday to approve the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to group headed by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski, allowing the transfer from Stu Sternberg’s group to close.

The Rays said on Sept. 17 they expected the sale to close within two weeks.

Sternberg took control of the team from founding owner Vince Naimoli in November 2005 and rebranded it the Rays from the Devil Rays after the 2007 season. The Rays won AL East titles in 2008, 2010, 2020 and 2021, and twice reached the World Series, losing to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.

ESPN.com

That turned out to be a pretty good run for a team that doesn’t spend a lot of money. The developed a great bullpen philosophy of never being married to any pitcher too long, and managed to find talent to stock the pen nearly every year. They invented the super utility player in the guise of Ben Zobrist. They emphasized defense over offense to support their pitchers. They often drafted well and traded well. I hope the new owners keep a lot of the organization in place.

June 14, 2025

Terrible Teams

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Sixty nine games into the season, the Rockies own 13-56 record, a .188 winning percentage. Since the first expansion in 1961, eleven teams produced a .315 winning percentage or worse. Four of those teams come from the early 1960s:

  • 1962 Mets 40-120, .250
  • 1961 Phillies, 47-107, .305
  • 1965 Mets, 50-112, .309
  • 1963 Mets, 51-111, .315

Note that this level of failure stopped as the first amateur draft happened during the 1965 season. For nearly forty years things were fine, the we saw this:

  • 2003 Tigers, 43-119, .265
  • 2024 Diamondbacks, 51-111, .315

There was a bit of an upheaval at the time. Between 1997 and 2002, MLB and the MLBPA went back and forth on a competitive balance tax, with the basics of the modern system going into place in 2003.

In 2013, the Astros finished 51-111, .315. Note that the Astros had completed a sale in which they were forced to move to the American League. It was also a time when the CBA put into place restrictions on the amount teams could spend on amateur players, both in terms of the draft and international signings. The Astros poor play for the next four years would be the basis of they dominant teams since.

That brings us to the recent past:

  • 2024 White Sox, 41-121, .253
  • 2018 Orioles, 47-115, .290
  • 2019 Tigers, 47-114, .292
  • 2023 Athletics, 50-112, .309

There were also two teams in 2021 just off this list. This season, the Rockies will be challenging the bad recent seasons by the Athletics and White Sox.

I am not a fan of the draft, but implementing that system seemed to stop these terrible teams from happening. Subsequent expansions have not produced a team as bad as the 1962 Mets. The draft did not end dominant teams, however. In the 1970s, four teams won multiple Word Championships; the Pirates, Athletics, Reds, and Yankees. Free agency led to long era when no team repeated. It was the Yankees dominance (and it’s always the Yankees dominance) that led to the competitive balance tax (CBT).

I think it’s safe to say the CBT did not work. Lowering the price of amateur players did not work. A draft lottery has not worked. All of these ideas were pushed with an element of competitive balance, but they seem to be a way for teams to simply save money.

I even think the bonus pool rules for pre-arbitration players might be keeping youngsters in the minors longer. If a team keeps a player in the minors until age 24 the team captures the entire prime of their career. I was having a conversation this morning in which I was asked, “Why don’t the Rockies just call up most of their AAA team?” My answer was that the Rockies won’t be competitive this season, so why start the arbitration clock?

I don’t have answers. In my mind, minor league free agency might work, where some combination of age, minor league service time, and MLB service time makes a minor leaguer a free agent. So use them or lose them. I don’t think a constant parade of below .300 teams are good for the game.

February 24, 2025

Dolan Passes

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Long-time owner of the Cleveland franchise, Larry Dolan, died Sunday at the age of 94. He bought the Indians and left them the Guardians. The team put out this statement:

“Mr. Dolan invested his entire life in Greater Cleveland and impacted our community on so many levels,” Bob DiBiasio, Guardians senior vice president of public affairs, said in a statement. “From his service to our country as a First Lieutenant in the United States Marines, his many philanthropic acts of kindness, career in law, business, education, and sports, many benefited from his engagement, influence, and passion. Especially in the world of sports.”

Dolan, a Cleveland native, purchased the team from Richard Jacobs in 2000 for $320 million. The Dolan family has a 75% stake in the club and is the longest-tenured owner in Cleveland franchise history.

ESPN.com

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Jacobs brought the team out of the ashes, and while it took Dolan’s group a while to settle in, they eventually returned to the winning ways of the 1990s. Neither was able to bring a World Series title to the city, as they now hold the longest active Championship drought in the game.

February 8, 2025 January 8, 2025

Matt Seidler Responds

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Matt Seidler, brother of the late Padres owner Peter Seidler, responded to a law suit brought by Peter’s widow, Sheel Seidler. He directly addressed the suggestion that family discussed moving the team. He also pushed back on the claim of racisim:

Sheel Seidler, who is of Indian descent, also accused Bob Seidler’s wife of “multiple racist, profane and hateful communications.” In response, Matt Seidler wrote: “Sheel is well aware that this individual faces difficult personal health challenges and, most importantly, that the hurtful language does not at all reflect the thoughts or feelings of any other family member.”

ESPN.com

So the accusation in the complaint may be true but out of context. We’ll see how this plays out.

January 6, 2025

Ownership SNAFU

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Sheel Seidler, widow of former Padres owner Peter Seidler, is now suing her in-laws for control of the team:

In a complaint filed in Texas court, Sheel Seidler claimed she and her three children have been “effectively ostracized” from the organization since Peter Seidler’s death 14 months ago. The suit names Robert and Matthew Seidler as defendants, accusing the two brothers of “fiduciary breaches of trust, fraud, conversion and egregious acts of self-dealing” in their roles as trustees and executors of Peter Seidler’s trusts.

The Padres announced Dec. 21 that Peter’s oldest brother, John Seidler, would become the team’s control person, which Sheel opposed and claims to have gone against her late husband’s wishes.

ESPN.com

The Seidler’s are legacies of the O’Malley family of Dodgers fame. They might feel that they have the chops to run the club.

Update: More from East Village Times.

December 4, 2024

Viva Las Vegas

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Athletics owner John Fisher appears to be willing to foot the bill for the most of the cost for the new Las Vegas stadium, now thought to cost $1.75 billion:

U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs are loaning Fisher $300 million for construction costs, while the public sector is chipping in $380 million, per Front Office Sports.

Fisher is still recruiting minority equity investors but has not yet given a clear picture on how he will fund the rest of the project. Fisher has said he and his family will contribute as much as $1.1 billion.

ESPN.com

It seems to me that if Fisher committed $1.1 billion to an Oakland stadium, the deal could have closed. This continues to lead me to believe that at some point, Fisher just wanted out of Oakland, and even out of California. Fisher doesn’t communicate well, so we may not know what really drove him out until someone else involved in the deals opens up. It could be the regulatory regime that makes it difficult to build. It could be corruption that goes along with building in a big city. Maybe there is too much crime. Given the amount of money Fisher is willing to spend elsewhere, the greedy owner story seems less real to me.

October 10, 2024

Twins for Sale

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If you have a spare $1.5 billion, the Twins could by yours:

“For the past 40 seasons, the Minnesota Twins have been part of our family’s heart and soul,” Twins executive chair Joe Pohlad, a third-generation owner, said in a statement. “This team is woven into the fabric of our lives, and the Twins community has become an extension of our family. The staff, the players, and most importantly, you, the fans — everyone who makes up this unbelievable organization — is part of that. We’ve never taken lightly the privilege of being stewards of this franchise.

“However, after months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.”

Chron.com

Sell high! It’s a good franchise with a beautiful ballpark. Note that the Nationals tried to sell their team not too long ago and really couldn’t find a buyer. Maybe the Twins will do better.

February 16, 2024

No Frenzy

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Yesterday, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said that the owners asked the Players Association for a free agent signing period.

Sometimes I think these sorts of rules come up not just to save money, but because GMs are lazy. Draft slot bonuses, international bonus pool money, this idea, all let the GMs say, “Sorry, I can’t negotiate any more, my hands are tied.”

This is a bad idea from many angles:

“With the system we have right now, one of the tactics that’s available to player representatives is to stretch out the negotiations in the beliefs they’re going to get a better deal,” Manfred said. “That’s part of the system right now. There’s not a lot we can do about it. Certainly, from an aspirational perspective, we’d rather have two weeks of flurried activity in December, preferably around the winter meetings.” 

It is a given that deadlines are created to insure the best deal. Does it matter that it is two weeks or four months? In the case of a sport, it certainly does. If a contender were to lose a star outfielder to an injury tomorrow, would not Cody Bellinger become more valuable? The same with Blake Snell if a front line starter goes down for a year due to surgery.

Likewise for a team, if Snell and Bellinger remain unsigned into March, some team that wasn’t in the mix might be able to swoop in with a cost effective deal that provides some other incentives like opt outs or an extra year. More information benefits both sides.

If the MLBPA is smart, however, they could leverage this into a better free agent environment. A counter could be free agency after six professional seasons, not six years in the majors and no free agent compensation for teams losing players. Getting young players to free agency sooner is the best way to get more money to the players providing the most production.

February 1, 2024

Lying to Politicians

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Maryland politicians got a dose of their own medicine over the Orioles sale:

The other members of the Board of Public Works who signed off on the lease — Treasurer Dereck Davis and Comptroller Brooke Lierman, both Democrats — told The Baltimore Banner that they weren’t notified of the sale, either.

Davis spoke out at the Board of Public Works meeting, saying he felt Angelos lied to state officials.

In December, Angelos had placed a call to Moore to assure him that the Orioles were not for sale — which came after reports that Rubenstein was close to buying the team.

Davis said he was troubled by the fact that Angelos “categorically denied that that they were for sale” and then went and sold the team.

“I feel lied to. I feel misled,” Davis said.

TheBaltimoreBanner.com

Maybe they weren’t told over a lack of trust.

January 30, 2024 September 8, 2023

Reports of Stephen Strasburg’s News Conference Were Greatly Exaggerated

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The Nationals owner chided the media for reporting on a press conference that was never scheduled:

Owner Mark Lerner released a rare statement Friday to respond to a variety of reports about a news conference, which was being planned for Saturday but never announced by the team.

“While we have been following the process required by the collective bargaining agreement, behind-the-scenes preparations for a press conference had begun internally,” Lerner said in a statement. “However, no such event was ever confirmed by the team or promoted publicly.”

…

“It is regrettable that private discussions have been made public through anonymous sources attempting to negotiate through the media,” Lerner said.

ESPN.com

I thought something might be up when I was hearing that Strasburg was not giving up his salary. Retirement basically means canceling the deal, which is what happened with Alex Rodriguez. So until the salary is settled, we won’t be hearing anything official.

July 18, 2023

Joanie Loves Chachi

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Liberty Media spun off the Atlanta Braves:

Perhaps most notable is fans will be able to purchase stock in the newly created Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc. and become owners of the team.

Plans for the spinoff were announced last year and made final in a vote by Liberty stockholders, led by chairman John Malone, on Monday.

Braves chairman Terry McGuirk and president Derek Schiller will continue their lead roles in the team and The Battery Atlanta, the mixed-use development adjacent to Truist Park that includes business, a hotel, restaurants, a concert venue and other properties.

“So no surprises here, no changes really,” McGuirk said Tuesday. “The purpose here today is we absolutely want to tell you that it’s business as usual. There are no changes to how we operate. I am still the control person of the team.”

ESPN.com

The Braves are an incredibly successful team, and the spinoff should do well for Liberty. I suspect fans will be more than happy to own a part of the franchise.

April 8, 2023

More On Reynolds

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The Pirates and Bryan Reynolds appear to be on speaking terms. The following happened on Friday during batting practice:

Pirates owner Bob Nutting approached Reynolds around the batting cage and the two shared a laugh.

Despite what has happened over the past few months, there’s a mutual respect and admiration there. It’s also true that business and trying to do what’s best for each party has clashed.

But if the Pirates and Reynolds are going to get something done, this could be how it happens, Nutting and Reynolds talking face to face, figuring out a reasonable path forward. After all, Nutting does genuinely want Reynolds here. The Pirates’ eight-year, $106.75 million should offer at least some proof of that.

“I really appreciate and respect Bryan,” Nutting told the Post-Gazette before Friday’s game. “Everybody is working really hard and continues to work really hard.

“Certainly our goal — and I think Bryan’s goal — is for him to be part of the Pirates for a long time.”

Post-Gazette.com

This could be another Aaron Judge situation, where saying no to a contract turns out to be the right move for the player. Judge was able to overcome the animosity created by the rejection, and it looks like Reynolds might also. Winning fixes a lot of ills.

April 3, 2023 March 23, 2023

The Forbes List

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Forbes Magazine published its yearly list of baseball franchise values. In a high inflation year, team values are up on average 12%.

The average MLB team value is up 12% this year, to $2.32 billion. During the 2022 season, revenue (net of stadium debt service) increased 7.8%, to an all-time high of $10.3 billion. The top-line gain was driven by a 64% increase in ticket revenue (including postseason and spring training), to $2.4 billion (the 2021 season started with nearly all ballparks under capacity restrictions) and a 35% increase in premium seating (suites and club seating) revenue, to $$1.16 billion. But operating income (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came in at an average of $17.7 million per team, down 20% from the previous season as player costs (salaries, bonuses and benefits) rose 13%, to $5.2 billion, and an increase in SG&A expenses.

Forbes.com

So the CBA worked in putting more money in the pockets of players.

The Yankees are the most valuable franchise at $7.1 billion, thanks in part to a Regional Sports Network that still makes money. At bottom sit the Marlins, worth just $1 billion.

February 21, 2023

Suing the Mets

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Phil Regan is suing the Mets for age discrimination:

The Mets made Regan interim pitching coach under then-manager Mickey Callaway when they fired Dave Eiland midway through the 2019 season. Regan, then 82, was not retained, however, alleging that then-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen told him he was “too old,” per the lawsuit obtained by TMZ.

ESPN.com

This strikes me as one of those cases where the Mets should just settle. Steve Cohen could say, “That was the previous regime. That’s not how we operate,” and reach a decent settlement. It would be good for Regan and good PR for the club.

February 20, 2023

The Mets Future

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Mets Owner Steve Cohen talked about his long-term plans for the franchise on Monday (may require a subscription):

For Steve Cohen, that word is “listen.” And on Monday, the owner whose spending has rankled his peers across the industry was hoping they would take heed of one point in particular.

“Listen,” Cohen said, “ultimately the path is to create a sustainable farm system. That’s how we’re going to lower our payroll in a way that doesn’t hurt our success. That’s where we ultimately have to go, at least for me, to consider my ownership a success.”

TheAthletic.com

Some may see Cohen as a new George Steinbrenner, but I held out a small probability that he might be Wayne Huizenga. Win the World Series, then sell off your players for prospects to build a sustainable model. The Marlins did win another World Series within a decade, but they failed to build a sustainable model.

February 6, 2023

Brotherly Love

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The Angelos brothers settled their dispute over control of the Orioles:

Lou Angelos sued John last year, claiming John took control of the Orioles at his expense. Georgia Angelos, their mother, also was named as a defendant.

In a Friday court filing in the case, John, Lou, Georgia and Peter Angelos called on “all claims, including all counterclaims and defenses, asserted therein be dismissed with prejudice in their entirety.”

ESPN.com

I’m glad they found a way out of this. It always pains me to see family members that don’t get along.

January 18, 2023

Opry Baseball

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Former pitcher, agent, and general manager Dave Stewart works diligently to build a group that can put an expansion team in Nashville, Tennessee. MLB will not move on expansion until Oakland and Tampa Bay resolve their stadium situations, but Stewart wants everything in place:

The uncertain timetable creates a quandary for groups like Music City Baseball. How do you build a baseball team without the guarantee of ever even having a baseball team? Stewart and his colleagues described the effort as something akin to building a home. The foundation must be ready by the time MLB opts for more construction. “Truth is, what we have time to do is just think,” Stewart said. “And paint a picture, paint a canvas, paint our vision.”

Added managing director John Loar, “We’re trying to control things we can control. And build our organization and build a brand and a team — before it’s a team.”

TheAthletic.com

The group is recruiting people who tried to buy a baseball team in the past but fell short.

Unstated in the article is another advantage to building now. Both Oakland and Tampa Bay could move if their stadium situations stall. This group could buy one of those teams and move to them to Nashville as well, which might be cheaper in the long run and could even lead to a championship season quicker.

January 17, 2023

Speaking for the Sons

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A couple of sons of owners who have moved into team control might wish to think about hiring a spokesman. First, Reds president Phil Castellini:

“He did open up that talk asserting that the Reds were a nonprofit organization,” said Tracey Johnson, a season ticket holder and Rosie Reds member. “I’ve worked for 501(c)(3)s and I was appalled, to say the least. It went down from there. He was very much trying to really back up, ‘hey, we’re trying and the system is fixed against us.’”

TheAthletic.com

Then John Angelos of the Orioles makes the mistake of telling a reporter how to do his job rather than issuing a “No comment”:

Neither of these incidents represent the first time these people have performed poorly speaking publicly.

When players were receiving DUIs, I suggested that they hire a driver. Ride services appear to have taken care of that problem. I suggest these owners hire someone who can speak for the owners.

No one is good at everything, and dealing with the press and the public can be harrowing. There are people who are good at this, people who can convey optimism about a season, support for the fans, and support for the players. They can successfully deflect potentially embarrassing questions so the owners don’t get pilloried in the press.

Castellini and Angelos might be perfectly fine owners, but they should leave the talking to someone else. Otherwise, they better win.

December 21, 2022

Betting on the Mets

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The odds of the Mets winning the World Series moved to favorite status with the signing of Carlos Correa. They’ve been a good bet all off-season, but now they are tied with the Astros at the top.

Odds movement provided by BetMGM’s John Ewing

+1100: At the start of free agency — Tied for fifth-best odds with the Braves.

+1700: DeGrom signs with the Rangers — Seventh best odds.

+900: Verlander agrees to deal with Mets — Fourth-best odds.

+1000: Odds move back a little (before Correa) — Tied for fourth-best odds with the Padres.

+650: Correa signs while the world was sleeping — Tied for the best odds with the Astros.

NYPost.com

I’m awaiting all the stories about how Steve Cohen is bad for baseball, and the parodies that go along with them.

December 11, 2022

What Cap?

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The Mets add Japanese pitcher Koduai Senga* to their rotation on a five-year, $75 million contract. In Nippon Professional Baseball, he posted a 2.59 ERA in 1089 innings over eleven seasons. He also pitched another 250 innings or so in the Japanese Western League. So his workload was low and spread out over the full year. The Mets are paying for one and a half WAR per season, and that seems reasonable.

*Baseball Reference spells the first name with a u. Other publications omit the u.

The striking thing, however, is the Mets projected payroll:

Those moves push New York’s projected 2023 payroll to around $340 million right now — well beyond the highest luxury-tax threshold of $293 million. And that’s without any other major additions this winter.

Under Cohen, who bought the club in November 2020, the Mets became baseball’s biggest spender this year for the first time since 1989. Their payroll was $273.9 million as of Aug. 31, with final figures that include bonuses yet to be compiled.

Chron.com

The question of course, is did the Mets spend the money well? Steve Cohen clearly wants a championship now.

It’s also nice to see an owner breaking the rules again. I suspect Cohen will soon come under fire from small market clubs the way George Steinbrenner did in his hey day. An owner who wants to go all-out to win is good for the game, it keeps the other owners from getting complacent.

November 30, 2022

Hereditary Ownership

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The third generation of the Pohlad family takes over the Twins:

Minnesota Twins owner Jim Pohlad has handed day-to-day operations of the club to his nephew Joe Pohlad, the third generation of family leadership of the franchise.

Jim Pohlad announced the transition in a letter to staff on Monday that was made public by the Twins. He said he will remain controlling owner, involved in Twins and Major League Baseball business. Joe Pohlad will become executive chair, and president and CEO Dave St. Peter and president of baseball operations Derek Falvey will report directly to him.

ESPN.com

The Twins own a decent, not great record under the Pohlads, who took over the team in 1984. They rank 17th in winning percentage in that time, 3018-3130, a .491 winning percentage. They did win two World Series titles, however, one of eleven teams to win multiple World Series in that time frame.*

    *Note that this includes a number of small market franchises, include the Blue Jays, Royals, and Marlins. Do we count the Astros as well?

    November 30, 2022

    Big Ass Money

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    MLB sold the last 15% of BAMTech (which grew from MLB Advanced Media) to Disney for $900 million.

    The easy short-term takeaway here is that each team just gained $30 million. Obviously, we shouldn’t be shallow enough to believe teams are going to or should be required to turn around and increase their player payrolls by $30 million apiece. There are many costs to running a team other than payroll, of course. 

    CBSSports.com

    There might even be a hefty tax bill on the capital gain. One way to look at it, however, is that every team can afford a star free agent for a year!

    I love the story of MLBAM, as it runs against the history of baseball broadcasts. Baseball failed to embrace both radio and television as ways to bring the games to people, thinking it would hurt ticket sales. If fact, delivering live action to people created more fans that eventually brought more people to the park.

    MLB did not make the same mistake with the internet. The league wanted to deliver content over IP, but in order to do so they needed to improve streaming algorithms. That proved to be much more valuable, as most streaming services today are based on BAMTech software. It also provided the owners with an income stream independent of the game.

    It’s one reason the owners had leverage over the players in the previous decade of labor negotiations. They could walk away from the game and still have a very nice income. That’s not quite true any more. We’ll see how much of this windfall gets invest back into the game and the players. It might be a very good year for teams competing for free agents.

    November 11, 2022

    Clicked Off

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    The Astros and general manager James Click failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. Click rejected a one-year offer:

    Conflict within the organization on baseball operations decision-making persisted throughout the Astros’ championship run this season, sources told ESPN, and Click’s reticence to accept owner Jim Crane’s one-year contract offer was the talk of baseball’s GM meetings in Las Vegas.

    ESPN.com

    I find this very odd, as it’s not clear where the conflict existed. The local Houston article has little else, except this:

    USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Click was “offered a one-year contract and raise from his $1 million salary on Monday, turned it down in pursuit of a longer contract, and was dismissed Friday after publicly airing his grievances at the GM meetings.”

    Chron.com

    I assume it will be fairly easy for Click to find another job, given his success with the Astros post-scandal.

    November 10, 2022

    Selling a Rebuild

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    The Washington Post discusses how uncertainty about the ownership situation and the 2023 payroll doesn’t hurt the Nationals much. They are still in the early stages of a rebuild:

    Asked to connect some dots Wednesday,to explain whether the ongoing sale process will affect spending this offseason, General Manager Mike Rizzo kept with the company line, saying, “We’ve been told to do business as usual.” The reality is Washington is both being shopped and at a rebuilding stage that wouldn’t typically yield splashy signings. Yet key details remain up in the air.

    WAshingtonPost.com

    Free agent signings or big trades typically come when the young core is in place and the front office needs to fill holes. Buying a team is very expensive, so a low payroll makes the sale easier. I would also think that buying a team that is near ready to compete would also make the sale easier, because good teams tend to bring in the fans and revenue. If someone wanted to buy a team right now, the Nationals should be a much better deal than the Angels.