The Evolution of “Small Market Teams”
“This is why I believe that teams should start to spend money so that teams can improve and more kids can find interest in the best sport there is.”
The way I fell in love with this beautiful game was through my brother and dad. I would see them watching Yankee vs Boston games in the MLB and Aguilas VS Licey in LIDOM, the Dominican Professional League. That was the reason I fell in love with baseball, and now I’m a fan of their favorite team because I used to see them win, which led to me enjoying watching them play. But if I would’ve seen them lose a lot, I would not be intrigued in watching the game because all I would see would be blowouts. It’s hard to see your favorite team lose; I would have questioned why they were watching this. I grew up seeing David Ortiz hit Grand slams in the 2013 Championship Series and seeing the floor shake from the noise. I got to see the Red Sox win their 2018 World Series and got to see a historic season from Mookie Betts. I got to see Las Aguilas come back from 2-0 in the finals, being the only team to do so in LIDOM history.
In baseball we learn to say many teams are “small markets” and can't pursue or hold certain players because of their value, but that is completely false. Even the owner of the cheapest team in recent history, John J. Fisher, owner of the Oakland A’s, is a billionaire. This goes to shows how some owners just do it for the money and don’t care about the fan base, and how many don’t think about that kid that lives close to the stadium and wants to root for his team. And yet, how is he going to do that if his favorite team loses 100+ games each season? And not just that, this could lead to less kids wanting to play baseball in that area because many times, when kids fall in love with sport, it’s through their dad or brother watching games on TV or taking them to the stadium.
These owners are just holding these teams because these teams are almost all worth 1 billion dollars, and the lowest worth is the Miami Marlins at 990 million dollars. A team worth 1.18 billion dollars has a payroll of 36 million dollars, and that is the primary example that shows that these owners don’t care about the fans. This is very newsworthy and these statistics should be shown to the public and owners like these. The MLB should force them to spend more money and show that they are trying to be competitive, because this is not fair to the fan base of these teams. It’s something happening directly in our eyes and we are not doing anything about it to the point where a “big market” team like the Red Sox is not spending money and is not trying to compete because they know they will receive a large amount of revenue without having to spend much money.
This has been a part of sport for years and they're the only 1 team that has found a way to be good without spending money. The Tampa Bay Rays and teams like the Red Sox have tried to mimic that but it has not worked – leading to only 1 playoff appearance in the last 4 years. This is a major loss for baseball and all the sport world and that is why peaceful riots against the A’s should be supported. This goes to show why this is very important and teams should try and do good so that they receive more fans and attract more youth to the game of baseball which is something that has been majorly lacking over the past few years and it on their hand to change it, we have seen teams like the Dodgers sign 2 players for 1 billion dollars and we all know that the stadium will be packed. This could be the case for any teams if they were just willing to invest some money. They should not just do this for the fans if not because it benefits them as they will receive more revenue.
In an interview from @Batboysbaseball to Cincinnati Reds legend and maybe one day hall of famer Joey Votto, he talked about the future of baseball in Canada and about the providence of baseball. He stated “People seem to love the Blue Jays(only Canadian team) which is all you can ask for, and this gives the sport a chance to grow because of the team's success.”
This shows my point, which is that MLB teams influence the amount of kids that play baseball from certain areas and that if we get owners to spend money so that the team can do good or show that they’re getting players to do good even if they don’t fully succeed. This shows my point that owners should try and improve their team because it helps the providence of baseball around the U.S and the world. I say “world” because me and my friends are fans of teams that have their favorite player and most of the time the favorite team of a person from another country will most likely be from a player of their country.
Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. are 2 major examples of this, because in 2019-2023, almost every young player from DR's favorite team was the Padres. They had 2 electric young players that played with a lot of emotion. That is why many love the Blue Jays in Canada because they have Vladlimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette that are very electric and good players. When we look at the AL East division, we see 4 teams that could get the 1st place, but then you have the Red Sox which right now have absolutely no chance of getting to the playoffs right now because of the lack of pitching and lack of spending this off season, only way they get there is making a trade or getting a top pitcher in Free Agency like Blake Snell.
Why would any new fans of baseball say they would want to support this team? I used this team as the example because it is supposed to be a big market team and John Henry does not allow their GM to spend money and then get the fans to blame GM’s for being cheap. That is why we saw Chaim Bloom be fired mid year and fans blamed him although it was not his fault if he was given a budget, now they have Craig Breslow which will most likely be run out of office for the same reason.
This is nothing new; being cheap does not work for all the teams. The prime example is the Tampa Bay Rays; they have been a playoff team since 2018 without spending a lot of money and trading away their top players like Blake Snell, Chris Archer, Tyler Glasnow, and more. They almost won the WS in 2020, being only 2 games away from being world champion and many ALCS exits over recent years. This is great for any MLB team, but this is not the case for a team like the Red Sox that have tried this and have done almost nothing over the last 4 years,. They have spent absolutely no money and have traded away their best player since Babe Ruth in 1920.
This is why I believe that teams should start to spend money so that teams can improve and more kids can find interest in the best sport there is. It has been shown that teams that are good lead to more fans and more fans lead to more people getting into the game of baseball. This is why players like Joey Votto stated that baseball in Canada is being played more – the Blue Jays are a top team in the sport and are spending a lot of money. That is why the MLB should make a minimum and max salary cap so that all teams have to spend a certain amount of money and every team has a chance of getting better players.