In wake of splashy signings, target widens on Rangers
As the Dodgers made splashy signings with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto this offseason, other teams focused on modern baseball’s stark reality: pricey payrolls often don’t translate into titles.
Baseball’s biggest spender has won the World Series just three times in the last 23 seasons: the 2009 Yankees, 2018 Red Sox and 2020 Dodgers. Going back to the start of the wild-card era in 1995, the highest roller has just six championships, with the Yankees also winning in 1996, 1999 and 2000.
“Clearly having a very high payroll is correlated with winning more games in the regular season,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week. “The saving grace for us has been that our playoffs are unpredictable enough that the 110-win team doesn’t automatically march through the playoffs.”
Just 12 of the last 29 World Series winners had the top regular season record in their league. Steve Cohen’s Mets became the most expensive failure in baseball history last year, boosting payroll to a record $355 million on opening day, then finishing fourth in the NL East at 75-87 and incurring a record luxury tax of nearly $101 million.
“Some of the best teams in baseball that we’ve seen over the last 10 years have a hard time winning the World Series,” Cohen said.
Since the Rangers won their first title after finishing second in the AL West at 90-72, the Dodgers made the most ostentatious additions by reaching a record 10-year, $700 million contract with two-way star Ohtani and a 12-year, $325 million deal with righthander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They also acquired right-hander Tyler Glasnow from the Rays and gave him a five-year, $136.5 million agreement.
The Dodgers and Padres opened the season last week with a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea. Other teams begin Thurs
day and Friday in hopes of preventing the Rangers from becoming the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 Yankees. Bruce Bochy, who turns 69 next month, will try to join Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Connie Mack as the only managers with five Series titles.
Changing places
Other free agents who wound up with new teams included Giants left-hander Blake Snell, who won his second career Cy Young Award last season with the NL West-rival Padres, Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray, Giants third baseman Matt Chapman and Astros closer Josh Hader.
The Giants also brought in an Asian star, giving South Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee a six-year, $113 million contract.
Juan Soto was the most-prominent player traded, dealt from the Padres to the Yankees for his final season before free agency.
In the final days leading up to opening day, left-hander Jordan Montgomery signed with the reigning NL champion
Diamondbacks and designated hitter J.D. Martinez joined the Mets.
Some teams appear to have reduced payroll because of local broadcast revenue uncertainty. MLB took over broadcasts of Padres and Diamondbacks games last year after Diamond Sports Group filed for bankruptcy protection.
“It’s just profit-taking and a lack of competitiveness,” said Scott Boras, the agent for Snell, Montgomery and Martinez.
Big league umpires might welcome a notable new coworker, too. Jen Pawol was given a full-time Triple-A assignment and is on the verge of becoming the first woman to umpire a major league game.
New seats, hot seats
Among the winter’s biggest acquisitions was the Cubs poaching manager Craig Counsell from the rival Brewers, who then promoted bench coach Pat Murphy.
Ron Washington is getting another chance to manage at 71 years old with the Angels, and Bob Melvin left the Padres for the Giants, returning to the Bay Area after previously leading the A’sd. Mike
Shildt got Melvin’s previous job with the Padres, Joe Espada replaced retired Dusty Baker with the Astros, Stephen Vogt got Terry Francona’s old gig with the Guardians and Carlos Mendoza took over the Mets.
The Red Sox’s Alex Cora and Yankees’ Aaron Boone are lame-duck managers in the final seasons of contracts. The Yankees are coming off an 82-80 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
“All you can kind of do is focus on what we have, and I’m excited about our group,” Boone said.
It’s stricly business
The A’s head into an uncertain future. Their lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires after this season and the team plans to move into a new Las Vegas ballpark in 2028 with no home site set for 202527.
The Orioles has entered a new era when Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein, who bought the team from longtime owner Peter Angelos. The sale valued the franchise at $1.725 billion and was unanimously approved by league owners Wednesday.
Not-so-new rules
After instituting a pitch clock last year that cut the average time of nine-inning games by 24 minutes to 2:40, its fastest since 1985, MLB shortened it with runners on base by two seconds to 18. MLB also widened the runner’s lane approaching first base to include 18-to-24 inches of fair territory until the edge of the grass, changing a more than century-old rule that caused World Series controversy over interference calls.
Helped by a swifter pace and a return to normalcy following the coronavirus pandemic, MLB last year drew 70 million fans for the first time since 2017 at 70.75 million and revenue rose to a record $11.6 billion. However, broadcast revenue is 25% of the total, according to Manfred, and while Amazon’s investment in Bally has created a more positive outlook, the future of media rights is unclear.
“The media landscape is uncertain. It’s changing really fast,” Manfred said. “Even the smartest people in the business, and I don’t necessarily count myself in that group, but even the smartest people in the business don’t know exactly where this is shaking out.”