The official Hot Stove League Thread 2025-26 Offseason

[Sexymarinersfan]

What is going far enough to get it??? 2 seasons? 3? 5???

Maybe they can do a floor and just increase the lux tax?

But these high end salaries just took a huge bump up. For about 20 years it was basically the Arod deal was about the max. AAV Now 60M to Tucker, 42M for Bo, 765M for Soto, 700M for Ohtani. That is a crazy jump up in terms of how much the top guys make.

Agree with all of this. This is unsustainable.

Floor. Cap/ceiling. Stiff penalties for exceeding the cap and close loopholes like Ohtani’s deferred contract.

The popularity if the sport is waning and viewership has plummeted. These bloated contracts for the top 1% of pro ball guys is great for them, but this kind of spending is going to doom the sport. Why would you ever become a fan of a small market team like the Rockies or White Sox or Marlins? What’s the point? Unless you just like sitting in the sun and munching on peanuts, there is literally no reason to get excited about your team, and zero chance they will win a World Series. Fans will eventually figure out that you can sit in the sun and drink $14 pilsners without paying $75 just to get into the bar.

Baseball needs to save itself from itself.

No playoffs for teams that go over the cap. No draft picks for teams under the cap floor.

[GL_Storm]

Maybe they can do a floor and just increase the lux tax?

But these high end salaries just took a huge bump up. For about 20 years it was basically the Arod deal was about the max. AAV Now 60M to Tucker, 42M for Bo, 765M for Soto, 700M for Ohtani. That is a crazy jump up in terms of how much the top guys make.

Agree with all of this. This is unsustainable.

Floor. Cap/ceiling. Stiff penalties for exceeding the cap and close loopholes like Ohtani’s deferred contract.

The popularity if the sport is waning and viewership has plummeted. These bloated contracts for the top 1% of pro ball guys is great for them, but this kind of spending is going to doom the sport. Why would you ever become a fan of a small market team like the Rockies or White Sox or Marlins? What’s the point? Unless you just like sitting in the sun and munching on peanuts, there is literally no reason to get excited about your team, and zero chance they will win a World Series. Fans will eventually figure out that you can sit in the sun and drink $14 pilsners without paying $75 just to get into the bar.

Baseball needs to save itself from itself.

No playoffs for teams that go over the cap. No draft picks for teams under the cap floor.

That's effectively a hard cap with a hard floor, which is presumably what the owners want, as opposed to the current system, which is super squishy on the top end and doesn't have a floor.