Player Pay Complaints and Worth

Player Pay is a difficult thing for the fan to understand.  The high dollar players do not help with fans understanding or feeling sympathy for them if they don’t get what they think they should get.  The Owners have not helped here either.  Every player and team deals with player pay differently.   A ten year veteren is going to have a different view about pay than a rookie.  We have allowed all entertainment pay to get out of control.   In sports it is approaching some crazy highs.    Who thought that people would call someone making $20 million underpaid?   It is difficult to figure out how high the player pay will go in sports.  It will go as high as the fans will continue to pay to watch the sport.  Even with the player pay getting so crazy there are still player that are complaining about it.

I saw an article about how players are concerned that some high profile players have not been signed as free agents yet.  They are concerned that the owners are purposely not signing those high profile players in a move to control the salaries.   It is possible that they are correct.   But really think about that.  The owners historically have had so much trouble agreeing on things that each sport has to have a commissioner to keep everyone in line.

There are a few other things that may be contributing to high dollar and profile players not getting signed yet.   Baseball has fully guaranteed contracts.  So if someone signs Bryce Harper to a $400 million 10 year contract and he suffers a career ending injury they are on the hook for the whole thing.  This is something that would make a team think hard about signing players to those kinds of contracts.  Another thing that my be contributing is that there is a limited number of teams that can afford a player like that.  Small market teams have to make more difficult choices when it comes to signing high profile players.   MLB wants you to believe that all teams are even when it comes to signing players.  The reality is that they are not.

The Luxury Tax was designed to make teams pay if they went over a certain threshold in salary.  Since its current incarnation since 2002.  Eight teams have had to pay the tax for going over the thresh hold.  Of those eight teams only five of them have been on the list multiple times.  The number of teams that can afford to be on that list is limited.   Those are pretty much the same teams that are going to be able to sign the high dollar players.   Other teams might be able to sign them but then it would affect the rest of the signings that they could make.  It would make no sense to have one great player if you could not afford to put anyone of any quality around them.

That becomes the key to building a team then.  What is your goal going to be.   There is a difference between building a team that is a contender and a team that might have big parts that draw different fans.  They don’t have to be different but in many cases they are.   There are all kinds of teams out there.  They all say that they are trying to win a championship but we know that they are not.   The Reds and Indians are two good examples.  The Reds seem to put together teams that will play the game and sometimes compete.  Not really building toward a championship.  The Indians are basically doing the same thing.  They just do it better almost winning a few years ago.  It happens even when you are not really trying that hard.   Neither of these teams is going to put out $400 milion to sign a player like Bryce Harper.

Realistically you had automatically eliminate at least half the teams from that type of player.  Now you only have about 15 teams that would be in the market to sign a $400 Million player.  With the market being cut in half already now you have to look at what team would need a player like that.  It would have to be a team that has deep pockets.   A team more than likely in a large market.  That is willing to spent that kind of money.  The market is limited.

I am not advocating for the Owners.  I think that the players have to right to get as much money as they possibly can get.   I would rather the players have the money than the owners.  I do how ever have trouble understanding a player complaining about getting only $300 million when they thought they should be getting $400 million.

There is no simple solution to how player pay is structured.  The Owners will more than likely think that the player pay is out of control.  Even though they are part of the cause.  The Players will always think that player pay is too low.   The Fans will complain about it.  They will however continue to pay to go to games, watch games, buy team merchandise.  All of which contribute to how much players are getting paid.

I think that the reason the few players at the very top are having trouble or it is taking longer to get signed is because of the risk that comes with fully guaranteed contracts.  Are the players worth it?  Yes as long as the fans continue to put out the money.  From the view point of the owners it is only worth it if they are in they playoffs and contending for a championship.  Duh well of course.   If the player skill drops off earlier than expected or you can not sign other players then what use is spending all that money.