It was the first day of the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas when a gang of media types formed a circle around Dodgers’ general manager Ned Colletti to ask him questions about the state of the economics in Major League Baseball. GMs like Colletti were worried not just for themselves, but also for the players because there was so much uncertainty digging into the minds of everyone.
“Is there anybody here that doesn't know anybody that's affected by [the downturn] or that's a little bit frightened by it?” Colletti said, noting that he had no idea what was in store for a lot of baseball teams. “I think we all do.”
Certainly it was a peculiar spot to be having the conversation. After all, just through the labyrinth of hallways outside of the plush ballroom in the back of The Bellagio baseball execs were talking about the biggest deals (and non-deals) that would set up some ballplayers and their families for generations. Apparently lost on Major League Baseball was the fact that the discussions and their annual meetings were being held in a city built on broken dreams.
All those sparkling lights, elaborate fountain shows and erupting volcanoes weren’t built because regular folks were winning, were they?
But baseball has been winning. At least some in baseball had been winning. The Winter Meetings were held during a spate of contradictory revelations about the game. Just two days before everyone got together at The Bellagio, MLB laid off approximately 30 employees because of “cutbacks.” Yet, despite the cutbacks MLB reported a record revenue year in which it made $6.5 billion and were just weeks away from launching its own television network.
The trip to Vegas also came at a time when published reports indicated that commissioner Bud Selig had taken home $14 million in salary and bonuses. No doubt such hard times made it easy to understand why MLB would lay off workers who made barely a percentage per year what Alex Rodriguez made for playing in one game.
Yes, times were quite difficult for some associated with MLB, though not for the guys signing players or doing the firing.
Isn’t there a word for people like that? Aren’t there a bunch of words for people like that?
Still, Astros general manager Ed Wade stood in the hallway outside the ballroom and told me the reason why his club stopped its pursuit of free-agent pitcher Randy Wolf was a simple matter of economics. The Astros simply didn’t have the money to pay what Wolf was asking even though they had made generous offers before halting negotiations. Oh sure, the Astros had it, they just weren’t going to spend it.
After all, rich folks didn’t get that way by writing a bunch of checks.
“We hope to revisit the talks with Randy soon,” Wade said, perhaps hinting that they would make an offer to the ex-Phillie when the cash somehow magically re-appeared. Perhaps by holding a bake sale with $1,000 brownies.
But we haven’t gotten to the really weird part yet. Colletti and Wade and even Phillies’ GM Ruben Amaro Jr. had very different messages about the state of the economy and how it related to their clubs. Though Colletti knew about the tough times his friends were going through, it didn’t stop him from making huge offers to free agents Manny Ramirez or CC Sabathia. Interestingly, Colletti revealed that Sabathia told him that the pitcher wanted to play for the Dodgers despite signing a $160 million deal with the Yankees a few days later.
“I know that when we make an offer [to an agent], I'm getting less verification of whether it's good or bad,” Colletti said. “Which tells me that when I give it to them, they don't know. They don't know if this is the best they're going to get or the worst they're going to get.”
And while Wade struggled to find the cash to make an offer to Randy Wolf, his old pupil Amaro claimed he didn’t think the economics would hurt the Phillies all that much. He thanked a victory in the World Series for that, but noted the so-called “second tier” free agents might have some trouble landing jobs.
“The big boys, the CC Sabathias and Manny Ramirez, they’re still going to do quite well,” Amaro said while sitting in a hospitality suite on the 31st floor in The Bellagio.“Beyond that, those middle-tier free agents, they’re going to have a tough time getting what they think their value is. Some teams may be more apt to go with a younger player with a lower salary rather than have to pay multi-millions for that free agent.”
Not the Yankees. While other teams crunch the numbers and wring their hands over how to make the money work, the Yankees and the next generation of Steinbrenners have been downright obscene with their spending.
Recession? What recession? The Yankees have a $1 billion new stadium to pay for and tickets that cost thousands of dollars per game and may (or may not) require a blood and urine donation.
So after signing Sabathia to that big deal, the Yanks got A.J. Burnett for $82.5 million and first baseman Mark Teixeira for $180 million.
Mark Teixeira?
“It’s the latest embarrassment of riches,” a baseball official told The New York Post.
No, an embarrassment of riches would be paying to much for a kitschy item like a velvet painting of Elvis or a trip to Vegas to have a bunch a meetings at The Bellagio after firing some employees for no good reason at all. This is just showing off...
Actually, it's worse than that. It's taunting. It's nanny-nanny boo-boo stuff and that's just mean. What makes it especially mean is that the Yankees' luxury tax bill is nearly as much as the Marlins' entire payroll.
Talk about tacky...
Yet Teixeira has a job and guys earning in a year what he will get for taking part in one batting practice don’t? How does that work? Which one is the bigger strain on the economics?
Worse, how are these guys going to get paid if the TV networks walk away or the fans can no longer afford tickets?
“You can't bury your head in the sand on this one. We all have to watch out for people’s wallets. Any team not looking at 2009 a little differently, in terms of pricing,” said Dodgers chief operating officer Dennis Mannion. “I think everyone has to be thinking about providing more value to their customers.”
So they’re thinking, huh?
Coming up: A look back at March and Christmas.