ESPN Insider Takes Shot at Baseball Ownership Groups Including That of Seattle Mariners
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Let me set some context here.... I'm currently 35 years old and I've been a baseball fan my entire life. I've also been a Seattle Mariners fan my entire life.
I grew up thinking that baseball team budgets were mostly strict. For instance, by the time I was 12, I had seen the Mariners trade Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson. I had also seen them let Alex Rodriguez go in free agency.
I presumed those decisions were mostly about money and that the M's simply couldn't afford to keep these players. I thought there were a only handful of teams that could afford players like this, and it's why I grew up to despise the Yankees.
After all, the Yankees were eventually called the "Evil Empire" and they regularly bought stars from Roger Clemens to Gary Sheffield to Jason Giambi to Rodriguez to Bobby Abreu to Kevin Brown to AJ Burnett to CC Sabathia. Those additions are in no particular order, but each star player ended up in New York eventually.
However, as I've gotten older I've realized something, obviously. There are no true budgets in baseball. Sure, some teams have more limitations than others, but there are no true budgets. Often times, spending, or lack of spending, is just a decision that ownership makes. The Mariners - and other teams - could be spending. They are choosing not to.
That's what Jeff Passan of ESPN said on social media on Friday when fans were upset that Teoscar Hernandez had signed a new deal with the free-spending Dodgers. And Passan is right.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a machine. Not only do they print cash, their willingness to spend it in pursuit of winning is unmatched. They put their money where their mouth is. Others could benefit greatly from the same approach. They choose not to.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a machine. Not only do they print cash, their willingness to spend it in pursuit of winning is unmatched. They put their money where their mouth is. Others could benefit greatly from the same approach. They choose not to.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 27, 2024
The Dodgers won the World Series in 2024 and rather than just sit back and rest on that, they are going all-in to win another, and maybe another. And yeah, it's hard to realize as a fan that most of the talent is concentrated in a few places.
It's even harder to realize that your team is willingly choose not to be one of them.
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