As are AJ Burnett, Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez, the major names in a star-studded 2008 Major League Baseball free agent class.
But baseball as a whole is not recession-proof; only its superstars are. So while Sabathia holds out for an extra million dollars on a contract that could cover the payroll of the Florida Marlins for the next seven seasons, the rest of the league, mainly front office members and lesser-known players, prepares to suffer.
These are the real victims of baseball’s economic troubles because significant reductions of their salaries can be sanctioned without outrage from the local fan base. If the Yankees declined to pursue Sabathia because of the current status of the economy, can you imagine the outrage? Heads would roll. I can hear Yankee fans now: How could Hank Steinbrenner — not that he ever would — even consider putting something as insignificant as the national economy ahead of the legendary Bronx Bombers? Baseball is America’s Pastime, and its teams are sacred. As Billy Joel sings in his song “Miami 2017,” when New York was burning to the ground Armageddon-style, “they sent the carrier out from Norfolk, and picked the Yankees up for free.”
Los Angeles Dodgers president Jamie McCourt learned this truth the hard way. Last month, McCourt retracted a two-year, $45 million offer to Manny Ramirez because it felt “a little weird” negotiating such a lucrative deal while Americans across the nation were losing their jobs. She even had the audacity to say that Dodgers fans might prefer to see the money offered to Manny spent on community projects in conjunction with local charities. The nerve! Naturally the fans and media in L.A. erupted, prompting an embarrassingly awkward press conference in which McCourt had to reassert her dedication to winning.
Brian Kamenetzky wrote in a Los Angeles Times blog: “I can do without the shallow, self-interested explanations on the appropriateness of spending free-agent dollars while companies go under … Put the best product on the field you can afford, period.”
But baseball teams do not have the luxury of offering huge contracts to free agents and simultaneously taking care of their second-tier players. Something has to give, and, unfortunately, it is the latter taking the brunt of the economic hardships.
So what changes can we expect in baseball due to the current economic struggles? At first glance, very little. But, beneath the surface, trouble is brewing. Sponsors are backing out of deals, season ticket holders are cancelling their contracts at alarming rates, and baseball teams are responding by cutting the pay of their lesser-known stars.
As Stefan Fastis, The New York Times’ de-facto expert on the national sports economy, wrote in last week’s Week in Review, “non-elite players are likely to see contract offers with fewer years and less money. More players could be forced to accept league-minimum salaries. Teams might be reluctant to release players or fire coaches still owed tens of millions of dollars.”
Andrew Brandt, manager of the Green Bay Packers salary cap from 1999-2007, agreed.
“There’s enough ego and competitive instinct to make the big splash in free agency,” Brandt told The New York Times. “The issue will become how dramatic a drop-off there will be beyond the top 5 or 10 players.”
That drop-off is going to be dramatic. And since slashing Endy Chavez’ contract in half saves roughly $14 million less than shaving off one 10th of Sabathia’s forthcoming contract, the pay cuts will have to be widespread. Only 24 players in the league were offered salary arbitration this year simply because teams want to be in full control of their financial situations. Translation: Teams want to be able to allot a disproportionate amount of money for their headline stars. The New York Yankees, the league’s richest team, offered arbitration to no one, leaving players such as Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte to try their hand at free agency.
This all translates into less money for the mid- and low-level stars, but also a major cutback on expendable front office positions. The Toronto Blue Jays recently announced that the team will lay off a number of members of its media division, and the Arizona Diamondbacks have already fired 31 members of their front office.
Perhaps the most absurd storyline about baseball’s role in the country’s current economic troubles came out of Chicago earlier this week. Facing more than $13 billion in debt, The Tribune Company — which owns the Chicago Cubs — has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But as a subsidiary of the company left off the plea, the Cubs are legally unaffected, allowing the team to continue functioning normally. In other words, as the rest of the Tribune Co. is picked apart by creditors looking to reclaim their money, the Cubs will be active in winter meetings, offering up $140 million contracts in hope of landing a Sabathia or Teixeira.
Does that seem fair? Let me rephrase: Does any of this seem fair? The rest of America is going through a severe economic recession — the government’s seizure of mortgage moguls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae alone will cost American taxpayers $5 trillion — but baseball’s biggest stars are magically exempt? And when a company that own major league team files for bankruptcy, shouldn’t said team feel some of the ramifications?
Sabathia, Ramirez, Teixeira and Burnett are all set to cash in as if the country were in an economic boom, and those set to take the fall are the ones, both on the field and in the front office, whose names you might not know; the ones for whom a significant pay cut is also a monumental issue.
Not all of this is baseball’s fault; a lot of the onus falls on the fans. Because when a president like the Dodgers’ McCourt has the stones to come out and says she will not be offering monstrous contracts for financial reason, fans should be happy, thrilled in fact, that their team understands the gravity of the situation. Adapting to the recession in a fair manner — cutting salaries of every player proportionally — should not be viewed by the fans or by the media as a policy contrary to winning.
The country’s current economic situation is infiltrating nearly every level of American society. So ask yourself: Should a select few men, already making millions each year, be among the few people exempt from these troubles?
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