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Now after looking at the comments from Sunday’s blog there was an interesting point that was brought up and I’d be interested to know how everyone really felt about it.

Is Major League Baseball headed into a situation where it’s going to be the have and the have nots? We’ve seen just these pasts few off seasons that there are only a certain number of teams that can pay players the outrageous sums of money that they’re now receiving.

Obviously, Both of the New York Teams the Mets and the Yankees are willing to give out big contracts and then you add teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Chicago Cubs would also be able to do this, but so far, they’ve chosen not to. There are a few more teams that you could add to this like the Texas Rangers that have handed out some large contracts these past two off seasons.

Now of course if you’re a fan of teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates or Kansas City Royals you have to wonder were that leaves your team. You can throw in just about any other team that’s considered small market except for maybe the St. Louis Cardinals who somehow seem to be able to give out larger contracts than the other small market teams.

You can look at a team like the Cleveland Guardians who surprisingly won the American League Central last season and while they have a solid core of younger players, they didn’t add any significant free agents because they can’t give out the type of years and money that these top tier free agents got this off season.

Now it’s not the player’s fault. If someone was offering, you $300 million or more dollars I’m sure you’d quickly sign the contract and take that money, but how is this going to affect the game of baseball?

Major League Baseball is the only one of the four major sports that doesn’t have some type of a salary cap in place. Baseball does have a luxury tax penalty that teams pay., but it’s clear that a team like the Mets is willing to pay that with the moves they’ve made this off season.

That’s great if you’re a Mets fan because it’s clear that they’re doing everything they think is necessary to win, but the majority of Major League teams can’t do what the Mets are doing.

The Mets have signed six free agents this off season and yes, I’m counting Carlos Correa as one of those signings. Out of those six signings three have been big names Correa, Justin Verlander and Japanese pitcher Kodai Senga. These six signings don’t include resigning their own player Brandon Nimmo, so that could be looked at as a seventh signing. Is there another team that has signed anywhere near the free agent that the Mets have signed? I almost forgot that the Mets also resigned their closer Edwin Diaz, so he could be looked at as an eighth signing.

Don’t forget that just last off season the Mets signed Francisco Lindor long term after trading for him and they add outfielder Starling Marte as a free agent as well as starting pitcher Max Scherzer.

As of right now the Mets estimated payroll is $376 million dollars for next season. In comparison at the start of the 2021 season the Oakland A’s payroll on opening day was $31 million dollars. The Mets currently have three players that will be paid more than what the A’s opening day payroll was.

Again, this is great for Mets fans as they have to be a World Series favorite at this point, but how or can the rest of baseball keep up. The Mets aren’t doing anything wrong as their owner Steve Cohen seems more than willing to pay the luxury tax to build a winner.

Now I’m looking for you to weigh in here. Do you think this is good or bad for baseball? I’d also like to know if you think there’s a way baseball might be able to level the playing field so to speak so every team has a shot at signing a big-name free agent.

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.