The official Hot Stove League Thread 2025-26 Offseason

[Pharmabro]

I think owners will push hard for a cap but may not be willing to go far enough to get it, and as a consequence we could wind up losing most or even all of the 2027 season.

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.

[Mesully11]

These big salaries also cause salary inflation for smaller market teams.
The low spending teams are playing catch up and the price of doing business keeps going up for them.
The dodgers are now spending 4 times as more than several teams and more than twice as much as the Mariners, and there appears to be no end in sight.

I don't think it is sustainable for a lot of teams who don't appear to have a way to win in that environment.
Baseball used to be the national pastime but the NFL has taken that title away.

[Big_Maple]

I think owners will push hard for a cap but may not be willing to go far enough to get it, and as a consequence we could wind up losing most or even all of the 2027 season.

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.

[bpj]

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.

I hadn't heard this about the plummeting interest, and hearing so surprised me.

Maybe you just said it to get an emotional point across about the small market teams. Or maybe you just mean viewership of those small market teams. But I asked Grok about viewership and it paints a different picture.

The sport seems healthy and the teams seem to consistently bring in yearly profits and especially longterm franchise value.

The idea of Ohtani getting close to a billion, or Bo Bichette getting $42M per year blows my mind. But the alternative is just the owners pocketing the cash instead isnt it? Or I guess pricing the small market teams out?

[GL_Storm]

I saw something in the last week saying the baseball and major league soccer were at about the same level of popularity? I don't have the source so I don't know what the methodology used was.