More Money, More Problems

By Billy Fallon

As sports have evolved, especially baseball, the increase in spending on teams has typically led to an imbalance of talent and a better record for those who choose to spend endless amounts of money. However, this year should serve as a cautionary tale to those who try to spend big in the future, that throwing money at players won’t necessarily make your team better. The three examples of this phenomenon are the top three teams in terms of payroll in the MLB, The New York Mets, the New York Yankees, and the San Diego Padres. In this article, I will dive into the decision-making process of each of these three teams and try to understand why these teams have performed so poorly for their expectations.

New York Mets

Oh, how has this season been the Metsiest we’ve ever seen. Over the past two offseasons under new owner Steve Cohen, the Mets have thrown money at everything that moves to try to reverse their fortunes and create a winning team. Yet as of this moment, the Mets sit 12 games below .500. How has this happened you may ask, well, to put it simply, everything that could go wrong did. In the 2022 offseason, the Mets broke the bank on Max Scherzer, making him the highest-paid pitcher ever at the time by AAV with a 3-year 130 million dollar deal. In addition to making Fransisco Lindor the highest-paid shortstop in history with a 10 year 341 million dollar extension, the Mets looked primed for a playoff run, and to their credit, they made the playoffs, until they collapsed against the Padres in the wild card round and excited the playoffs being 1-hitted by Joe Musgrove. So, the Mets had to reload to make a deep playoff run, and they got to work in the offseason. It started with resigning Brandon Nimmo for 8 years and 162 million, followed by resigning their shutdown closer Edwin Diaz for 5 years and 102 million, a record for a closing picture. Then came the big fish, signing the best pitcher on the market, Justin Verlander to a 2-year 86.6 million dollar deal to match Scherzer’s record AAV. They followed this signing by adding Kodai Senga, the best international free agent for 5 years and 75 million, along with more starting options in Jose Quintana and Carlos Carrasco to pair with bullpen arms in Adam Ottovino and David Robertson. Take these additions, and add them with players such as Pete Alonso, Jeff Mcneil, and Starling Marte (who had been added in the 2022 offseason for 4 years and 92 million), Who was going to stop this team? Turns out just about everyone. Before the season even started, Edwin Diaz fresh off a new extension tore his patellar tendon while celebrating a win in the World Baseball Classic. Then the season officially started and they forgot how to play baseball. Everything got worse from the previous season and their slow start didn’t turn around at any point. Then came July and the front office decided to cut their losses and sell. Just as quickly as they came there went Max Scherzer to Texas and Justin Verlander to Houston. David Robertson went to Miami, Tommy Pham was sent to Arizona, and Mark Cahna was sent to Milwaukee. Then it came out that the front office was already looking towards 2024-2025 as their opportunity. As of this moment, the Mets sit at 66-78, 28.5 games out of first in the NL East. Let me repeat, the team with the highest payroll in the history of the MLB sits 28.5 games out of first, and they have no one to blame but themselves for expecting money to fix their team issues.

New York Yankees

Yet another New York team ends up on this list. All signs pointed to this year finally being the year the Yankees captured it all, yet as of today, they sit in last place. How could this happen? They have the reigning Al MVP Aaron Judge back on a 9 year 360 million dollar deal, brought in Carlos Rodon on a 6 year 162 million dollar deal, along with most of the pieces who brought them to the ALCS last year, and here they are playing near .500 baseball. For the team with the second-highest payroll, they played nowhere near expectations. To be fair, everything looked great in April and May, until June 3rd, when Aaron Judge made an incredible play crashing through the wall at Dodger Stadium helped lead the team to its 35th win to have a record of 35-25 after the game. But after the game, news broke that Judge had torn ligaments in his toe, and the circus followed closely behind. The Yankees collapsed after, plain and simple. They couldn’t hit, couldn’t field, couldn’t pitch(with the exception of their ace Gerrit Cole trying his best to carry the staff), and constantly made baffling decision after baffling decision. Aaron Hicks was so bad he and his 7-year 70 million dollar contract were cut even before the injury, but other players did not help. To start, Josh Donaldson still had an AAV of 23 million dollars to hit .145 and get cut after sustaining an injury. The pitching staff, again with the major exception of Gerrit Cole playing up to his 324 million dollar pay grade and putting together a young campaign, no one was good. Nestor Cortes underperformed, had a near 5 era, got hurt, came back for one decent start, then got hurt for the rest of the season, Luis Severino was hurt to start the year, came back, and forgot how to get hitters out, ending with a 6.65 era before being shut down, and this is all without mentioning their new 162 million dollar man Carlos Rodon. Rodon was hurt to start the year, came back, had an era over 7, got hurt again, came back, and is currently pitching to a 6.14 era, all the while gaining no sympathy from fans with his constant attitude. Then we have the hitting, oh boy the hitting. I’ll start with this, Aaron Judge leads the team in homers by a comfortable margin. Aaron Judge missed over 50 games this year in a lineup supposedly filled with power hitters. The only positives are him(even though his average is slightly down, which he makes up for with a strong OBP) and Gleyber Torres, as he has found his swing after a couple of down years to get back to 25 homers with around a .270 average. That’s it, Giancarlo can barely stay above the Mendoza line and his power is down, Lemahieu is a contact hitter who is hitting .237(near .215 before the all-star break), Rizzo played for months with an undiagnosed concussion and as a result lost his great start, Bader lost his power stroke, and neither catcher could hit. Yet, what truly baffles me is that the front office sat around and acted like everything was fine for the majority of the season. They made no moves at the deadline, and the only person who seems anywhere near upset in the front office is Hal Steinbrenner and that’s only now, he acted like everything was fine in June and July when they couldn’t stop losing. Cashman is still trying to justify every move he makes when they are clearly failing in front of him. I don’t know how much the moves are on him or what the analytics department is telling him, but he needs to take more accountability. The person I feel bad for in this is Aaron Boone, he’s been given a bad group to work with and has seemingly been thrown to the wolves and is being labeled as a scapegoat for the entire season. In conclusion, the Yankees have the second-highest payroll and are having their worst season in over 30 years as an organization, case in point evidence that money will not wash the problems away.

San Diego Padres

The Padres have just had a weird year. Sporting the third highest payroll in baseball, they were supposed to be the young, electrifying, high-energy juggernaut meant to compete against the Dodgers for the NL West crown yet here we are in September and they sit well below .500. The flashy move they made this offseason was inking Xander Bogaerts to an 11 year 280 million dollar contract while they moved Fernando Tatis, himself on a 14 year 340 million dollar contract out to right field fresh off a PED suspension. Pair them with a Juan Soto on a one-year 23 million dollar rbition settlement and a Manny Machado well into his 10-year 300 million dollar contract and you should have a dominant lineup right? Not really. Soto went through a slump most of the year and has not really been as dominant as he was in Washington, yet still putting up respectable power and walks numbers, Machado has been as usual except for his average dropping well below his normal mark, but his homer and rbi count look on par, but that’s really all the positives in the lineup. Bogaerts is down in almost every statistic, Trent Grisham is near the Mendoza line, bringing in Matt Carpenter was a complete bust for the DH spot, a spot which they also tried Nelson Cruz on a one-year deal before they released him, but above all, what happened to Ferando Tatis Jr.? He’s striking out at an alarming rate, all his numbers are down, while still some power he is nowhere near expected, but most of all, it just looks like he lost that intensity that ignited him his first couple of years. I mean sure, a motorcycle accident and a suspension for PEDS that sidelined him for a year might be affecting him, but the part of his game that he relied on is just gone. As for the pitching, nothing really stands out as being alarming, sure Yu Darvish did not play as expected and was recently shut down for the year with a 4.88 era, but besides that, there is not much to point to as being a problem. Sure Joe Musgrove was out most of the year and they couldn’t find a consistent start to replace him but Blake Snell is putting up a Cy Young campaign, Michael Wacha has a sub-3 era out of nowhere, Seth Lugo has been better than expected at a 3.80 era, and although some of the bullpen has not been great, Josh Hader has a 1.29 era. I mean they even got results from guys like Ha-Seong Kim, who wasn’t expected much on the batting side but has a .270 average and has become their leadoff hitter. Gary Sanchez came off the streets and hit 19 homers in 72 games. They had production, but they just kept losing, and the only thing I can chalk it up to is that they just don’t fit together. Everyone has seen Machado and Tatis fighting in the past and that’s the only reason I can find as to why this team can’t win ball games. Maybe it’s the fault of Aj Preller and the organization for just spending and bringing in players without giving the core time to mesh, but this is the clearest example of that throwing money, even when it doesn’t completely disappoint from a statistical perspective, cannot win championships.

Conclusion

So what have we learned from looking at these three teams? One thing is for sure: money won’t produce a good team. Each of these three teams threw money at any player they wanted until they could outbid their opponents. But why is this strategy such a colossal failure this year? Maybe we can chalk it up to the game shifting to be more accepting of strikeouts and encouraging of power, so when a power hitter gets a lucrative deal and disappoints in the power department, the team suffers as a result. Maybe things go on behind the scenes that we will never know that shows that the more players get paid the more pressure they put on themselves to succeed, but we’ll never know. But for one thing, let these teams be a cautionary tale, just because your favorite team may be spending more, that doesn’t mean your team will instantly be better.