photo credit: Rachel Lehman
The Cleveland Guardians recently lost to the New York Yankees in the MLB wildcard round. The Guardians fought hard, but the big Market Yankees ended up on top. This leads to the debate that the Yankees being in such a big market is an advantage.
The Yankees are a big market team, meaning more money. And in baseball, the more money you make, the more money you can spend on players. The Guardians being a smaller market than New York, have less money to spend on players.
“The Guardians were at a disadvantage,” junior Jackson Basnett explains. “Because of more money, the Yankees had a better team.”
The Yankees’ active 2023 payroll (with options) is 225.8 million dollars, while the Guardians active 2023 payroll (with options) is 55.4 million dollars, via Baseball-Reference. That is a little over 4 times as much money spent on players.
With the Yankees paying so much money, they are almost always contenders. Their team is much better and big-name players want to go there for the money. Some fans would say it’s unfair, but some fans have other opinions.
“They have more money, and with that money, they should have the right to spend more on players,” freshman Levi Davis said
If the Yankees make more money, why shouldn’t they spend it on players? They want to be a better franchise and the money could be used to improve the team.
These smaller teams have a smaller chance of winning and there isn’t much that teams can do about it. Signing big-name free agents is hard and the better teams get many great free agents. However, there is some things that teams can do
“Teams can get better scouts and find young star players,” Basnett said. “Bringing in better players means more fans and attention. More fans and attention means more money.”
As hard as it is to do, better players will bring more fans and marketing. And that is how teams make their money. Better players can have a long-lasting impact on a team’s future success.
