Discussions to limit MLB’s organizational spending in various departments focused on on-field improvement and performance, such as technology, player development, scouting and health, have taken place among Major League Baseball and high-level team officials.
Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic announced this news on Tuesday. An MLB spokesperson told them the spending reduction was focused on technology providers.
“There’s nothing going on there,” the spokesperson told The Athletic. “We are focused on gathering cost information from providers to find potential savings through efficiencies and ensure equal access to all technologies.”
However, Drellich and Rosenthal said multiple sources revealed that discussions and avenues for consideration also included personnel caps. They also said Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, raised the issue of cost controls with club financial officials last week.
An anonymous club official made some remarks to Drellich and Rosenthal on this subject.
“I’ve heard (the idea of limits) discussed at the ownership level. I don’t know where it comes from. It’s a competitive balance thing. … I’ve been in the game for 20 years. The The number of people we have in our clubhouse that work with the players has tripled, quadrupled in size.”
Another executive stressed that the problem is not that teams spend more money than others on various expenses. Rather, the problem is that these teams are not bringing in enough money to invest in these departments.
“Enough in terms of spending,” the executive said. “You should encourage people to learn how to make money.”
There is currently a huge gap between teams when it comes to player payroll, with some owners willing to do whatever it takes to win while others prefer to save as much money as possible. By Spotracthe No. 1 New York Mets, for example, spend $285 million more than the No. 30 Oakland Athletics.
It’s no surprise that there are rumors of spending caps in some departments, especially with some notoriously tight teams spending far less than the league average. Ultimately, these announced discussions don’t appear to lead to anything concrete immediately, but it’s certainly a development to watch for in the future.
