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We’ve all seen teams in every sport try to buy championships. Of course, with the introduction of the salary cap in the NBA, NHL and NFL it’s made it harder for teams to what would be looked at as buying a title. Now over in Major League Baseball they don’t have a salary cap, but a luxury tax and if your favorite team’s owner is willing to pay the penalty for going over that luxury tax that team can spend as much money as they want to.

If a certain team does spend a lot of money the question, then turns into how many championships does it take for it to be worth it.

If you’re old enough you’ve seen a team, try to do this in MLB before. When George Steinbrenner was running the New York Yankees, he would spend whatever money he thought he needed to on players to try and win the World Series.

In some cases, the strategy worked for Steinbrenner and the Yankees. New York won four out of five World Series in a row from 1996 to 2001. The Yankees also won back-to-back World Series titles in 1977 & 78.

Of course, these Yankees World Series wins where before the luxury tax was introduced in Major League Baseball. Since the luxury tax was introduced in MLB there hasn’t been a team to win back-to-back World Series.

Even though there’s a luxury tax in MLB and it seems to have added a sort of parity to the game it hasn’t stopped teams from spending their money and going over the luxury tax.

I think the team that jumps to the head of the pack when it comes to going over the luxury tax to try to win is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since 2002 the Dodgers have finished in 1st place in the National League West 12 times including winning the division 9 of the last 10 seasons.

Even though the Dodgers have won all those division titles and have made it into the playoffs as a wild card team on two other occasions the Dodgers have made just three trips to the World Series and have won the World Series just one time.

I don’t think that winning just one World Series title would be considered spending your money wisely, but it hasn’t, and it won’t stop teams from doing it.

The New York Mets were one of the teams that had everybody talking about the contract and the money they were handing out since they were sold to Steve Cohen.

The Mets have two players that are paid over $40 million dollars per season, one that’s paid over $30 million dollars a season, one that’s paid over $20 million dollars per season and then eight players that make between $10 and $19 million dollars a season. The Mets estimated payroll for the 2023 season is $359 million dollars.

Since Cohen bought the Mets just before the 2021 season the team has made just one playoff appearance as a wild card team last season. In that wild card game, the Mets lost to the San Diego Padres 2-1.

After some more off-season spending coming into this season a lot of people were on the Mets bandwagon and they were a trendy pick to win the World Series. A lot of the media that were high on the Mets coming into this season have now jumped off their bandwagon and probably wouldn’t even admit that they picked the Mets to win it all this season.

It’s unclear why they always seem to deny making a pick, but it’s understandable why they got off the Mets bandwagon.

With a win yesterday the Mets are 9 games under .500 at 37-46. The Mets find themselves 18 1/2 games behind the 1st place Atlanta Braves in the National League East. The Mets are also 9 games out of a wild card spot in the National League.

I’d be interested to know what you think the reason for the Mets failure is. Clearly, they went out and signed talented players. Edwin Diaz is the only serious long-term injury that they’ve had to deal with, but spending money hasn’t translated to wining for some reason.

With a little less than half a season to be played do you see the Mets rallying and finding their way back into the playoffs as even a wild card team?

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