Salary Caps in MLB?

     There has been talk for a long time now about implementing a salary cap in Major League Baseball. This may the topic which causes the next MLB lockout. 

    Whether or not players will agree to making less money (which we already know they will object to), the question stands; are salary caps a good idea?

    Unless you are a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, chances are that you have been or will be dismayed by the amount of money they spend. The Dodgers spent over $1 billion last season en route to their second World Series championship in as many years. And now, just a couple months later they are out making moves again, in what will likely be a three-peat championship contain in 2026.

    One may claim that the Dodgers have so much money that they take advantage of the league. This is partly true, but not completely. Teams like the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, and Milwaukee Brewers have much less money than the Dodgers, and need to rely on homegrown stars or one player they saved money for in order to compete (think Bobby Witt Jr, Tarik Skubal, and Jackson Chourio). However, some teams have the money to go out there and make good free agent additions, but choose not to. Believe it or not, the Oakland Athletics have an absurd amount of money. However, the owner pockets most of the money and does not put it into what he's literally been hired to do: that is, make the team more competitive.

    The Dodgers have a ton of money, but they use their money wisely, although annoyingly for everybody who isn't a Dodger fan. I would go as far as to say the Dodgers are ruining the game, but not so far as to say it's completely their fault. Greedy owners enabled the Dodgers to spend the most money on free agents, which is by no means the fault of the team. They are getting far too excessive, however.

    At this point baseball is a broken game. Salary caps could help fix the problem, though the Dodgers have set up such an empire that they would still be way ahead of the field. I am very much in favor of salary caps, which will give teams with less money a chance to compete, but what we need more desperately are competent and unselfish owners.

    I really don't care if there is a lockout regarding this issue. I have found that I care extremely little for MLB baseball now, and part of me would like to see it suffer for its sins.