Jeff Passan: “Baseball fans believe the game has become unfair”
January 16, 2026
Jeff Passan: “Baseball fans believe the game has become unfair”
28 comments
It’s always been unfair but I think the collapse of the RSN revenue for the bottom 2/3rds of teams has made it much more unfair than it was before.
Thats because it is. Are the Marlins able to sustain a $450 million payroll like the Dodgers?
Game is gone
Pat McAfee fuckin stinks
This isn’t like the singing of ohtani or snell. Kyle Tucker is an above average player but is definitely not a superstar. I think most fans of other teams should be happy that the Dodgers are wasting $120 million a year (after luxury tax) on a guy that is probably worth $25 million a year.
Part of me agrees and I hate the Dodgers but if IKF had been one pace ahead the Jays win the WS. People are acting like its already over for next season. Will the Dodgers win? I mean likely but anything can happen
I am very appreciative of someone like Jeff Passan, who has every opportunity to just keep his head down and be the incredibly reputable source he is, using their platform to take a step back and succinctly put the larger issues and concerns of the sport and it’s fans at the forefront.
The players association should have vetoed the Ohtani deal. It was an obvious advantage for the Dodgers. That’s where this mess started.
Has become? It has been.
I mean, 20 teams in this league act as veritable farm teams for the other 10
I never thought I’d see the outrage I saw when the Yankees signed Jason Giambi in 2002 ever again but here we are
lol I forgot they got Edwin Diaz too.
Not to draw politics into this, but the mentality the Dodgers have is the same as the billionaire class has in this country. Fuck everybody, we have the money. It’s all going to shit. Call me emotional, whatever. A tiny group of people are ruining, literally everything.
Tell me about it
We *know* it’s unfair. More and more fans are having a problem with it – finally.
Baseball being “America’s pastime” and now perfectly illustrating the pitfalls of capitalism.
60 million is unreal for Tucker. Game still gets played on the field and injuries occur but this is a mess for small market teams.
I forgot The Dodgers signed Edwin Diaz LOL fuck The Dodgers
It hasn’t been fair for a long time. It used to be that the mitigating factor was that the big teams spent money to overcome their weaker minors whether that was because of raiding the cupboard or because of inefficiently run scouting and development departments. Eventually those big contracts would become an albatross that those teams had to work around. It allowed smart teams that could consolidate resources and hyper focus on a 4 to 5 year window could compete every decade or so.
Now, it doesn’t matter, the Dodgers are the best at everything, there isn’t an area that you can compete with them in, they have a better farm, they have a better scouting department and their total payroll for the upcoming year will be more then your entire division.
I would love a salary cap “floor” and force my ownership groups to spend some money of FA’s. I am sure the Dodgers are pushing the boundaries, but so are my Tampa Bay Rays by doing all kinds of stuff to suppress spending. They broke my heart trading Evan Longoria years ago bc of money, David Price, etc. they also started using “openers” bc quality starting pitching cost too much for them. Here’s to hoping the Rays new ownership can spend more.
TV deals being left in the hands of the teams to negotiate on a regional level is a big factor.
NFL has National tv rights on all networks. MLB basically says “go find someone to broadcast 95% of your games, we’ll take care of the rest”
Teams are then stuck when they are locked into a decade long TV contract while other teams sign massive broadcasting deals.
Oh your broadcast partner filed for bankruptcy? OK, we’ll put you on MLB.tv but for free.
It’s a broken system. It’s not going to be fixed soon.
As a Cubs fan, he was never truly a Cub. Hard to explain, but its like he didnt want to be close to anyone in Chicago because he knew he was chasin’ paper elsewhere.
I’m not whining about the Dodgers, but I do worry if most teams can’t compete due to financial reasons that the sport will lose a lot of interest from most of the country.
Not really it being unfair or fair, but there are major competitive advantages for true big market teams, especially those with linear TV rights, now that RSNs are dying left, right, and center.
If the Dodgers spend like no other and are very much comfortable in paying luxury tax penalties, hurt them with draft picks, not just money.
The revenue share structure and mechanisms are outdated and still allow teams to avoid paying into it as much as they should.
Teams who also collect too much revenue sharing should be subject to limitations if they don’t invest that money into player salary, draft pick slots, international signings, etc.
Here’s the thing. If you’re a Dodgers fan I get it. You don’t see a problem and you’ll never see a problem. I’d feel the same way if it was the Ms. But the reality is this is a sport that’s already been waning in popularity and when one team just wins it all because they spent the most amount of money, eventually even more people are going to find something else to watch.
Salary cap and salary floor. Make it happen.
The Kyle Tucker signing is what finally smashed the dam for me. Like at this point it feels almost straight up disrespectful to the game.
Not judging him personally of course, Tucker can sign wherever he wants and followed the rules as written, but there is currently absolutely nothing even the other big market teams can do when all the best players want to be on the dodgers. Like no the Mets clearly couldn’t have just paid more, they were used as leverage to get more money from the Dodgers.
This kind of runaway effect where there is a super team willing and able to spend infinite money making more good players want to play for the super team making it more of a super team making even more good players want to play for it cannot fucking go on like this.
silver lining, I don’t mind that my team is in full rebuild mode anymore, because now there’s no point in trying anyway
Whatever. The anger is Manfred said he would fix Blackouts day one. How many years has he been Commish now? Ten? Blackouts everywhere. Then they added a fucking Clock. Now games are over faster than an NFL game and all the charm, drama and pastoral origins are gone. Greed and dominate winners are normal. 50s Yankees. What’s not normal is not being able to watch your home team because you’re not watching it on Cable or you are in a state that’s nearby another team. The product is supposed to be for the Everyman but only elites can engage with it.
28 comments
It’s always been unfair but I think the collapse of the RSN revenue for the bottom 2/3rds of teams has made it much more unfair than it was before.
Thats because it is. Are the Marlins able to sustain a $450 million payroll like the Dodgers?
Game is gone
Pat McAfee fuckin stinks
This isn’t like the singing of ohtani or snell. Kyle Tucker is an above average player but is definitely not a superstar. I think most fans of other teams should be happy that the Dodgers are wasting $120 million a year (after luxury tax) on a guy that is probably worth $25 million a year.
Part of me agrees and I hate the Dodgers but if IKF had been one pace ahead the Jays win the WS. People are acting like its already over for next season. Will the Dodgers win? I mean likely but anything can happen
I am very appreciative of someone like Jeff Passan, who has every opportunity to just keep his head down and be the incredibly reputable source he is, using their platform to take a step back and succinctly put the larger issues and concerns of the sport and it’s fans at the forefront.
The players association should have vetoed the Ohtani deal. It was an obvious advantage for the Dodgers. That’s where this mess started.
Has become? It has been.
I mean, 20 teams in this league act as veritable farm teams for the other 10
I never thought I’d see the outrage I saw when the Yankees signed Jason Giambi in 2002 ever again but here we are
lol I forgot they got Edwin Diaz too.
Not to draw politics into this, but the mentality the Dodgers have is the same as the billionaire class has in this country. Fuck everybody, we have the money. It’s all going to shit. Call me emotional, whatever. A tiny group of people are ruining, literally everything.
Tell me about it
We *know* it’s unfair. More and more fans are having a problem with it – finally.
Baseball being “America’s pastime” and now perfectly illustrating the pitfalls of capitalism.
60 million is unreal for Tucker. Game still gets played on the field and injuries occur but this is a mess for small market teams.
I forgot The Dodgers signed Edwin Diaz LOL fuck The Dodgers
It hasn’t been fair for a long time. It used to be that the mitigating factor was that the big teams spent money to overcome their weaker minors whether that was because of raiding the cupboard or because of inefficiently run scouting and development departments. Eventually those big contracts would become an albatross that those teams had to work around. It allowed smart teams that could consolidate resources and hyper focus on a 4 to 5 year window could compete every decade or so.
Now, it doesn’t matter, the Dodgers are the best at everything, there isn’t an area that you can compete with them in, they have a better farm, they have a better scouting department and their total payroll for the upcoming year will be more then your entire division.
I would love a salary cap “floor” and force my ownership groups to spend some money of FA’s. I am sure the Dodgers are pushing the boundaries, but so are my Tampa Bay Rays by doing all kinds of stuff to suppress spending. They broke my heart trading Evan Longoria years ago bc of money, David Price, etc. they also started using “openers” bc quality starting pitching cost too much for them. Here’s to hoping the Rays new ownership can spend more.
TV deals being left in the hands of the teams to negotiate on a regional level is a big factor.
NFL has National tv rights on all networks. MLB basically says “go find someone to broadcast 95% of your games, we’ll take care of the rest”
Teams are then stuck when they are locked into a decade long TV contract while other teams sign massive broadcasting deals.
Oh your broadcast partner filed for bankruptcy? OK, we’ll put you on MLB.tv but for free.
It’s a broken system. It’s not going to be fixed soon.
As a Cubs fan, he was never truly a Cub. Hard to explain, but its like he didnt want to be close to anyone in Chicago because he knew he was chasin’ paper elsewhere.
I’m not whining about the Dodgers, but I do worry if most teams can’t compete due to financial reasons that the sport will lose a lot of interest from most of the country.
Not really it being unfair or fair, but there are major competitive advantages for true big market teams, especially those with linear TV rights, now that RSNs are dying left, right, and center.
If the Dodgers spend like no other and are very much comfortable in paying luxury tax penalties, hurt them with draft picks, not just money.
The revenue share structure and mechanisms are outdated and still allow teams to avoid paying into it as much as they should.
Teams who also collect too much revenue sharing should be subject to limitations if they don’t invest that money into player salary, draft pick slots, international signings, etc.
Here’s the thing. If you’re a Dodgers fan I get it. You don’t see a problem and you’ll never see a problem. I’d feel the same way if it was the Ms. But the reality is this is a sport that’s already been waning in popularity and when one team just wins it all because they spent the most amount of money, eventually even more people are going to find something else to watch.
Salary cap and salary floor. Make it happen.
The Kyle Tucker signing is what finally smashed the dam for me. Like at this point it feels almost straight up disrespectful to the game.
Not judging him personally of course, Tucker can sign wherever he wants and followed the rules as written, but there is currently absolutely nothing even the other big market teams can do when all the best players want to be on the dodgers. Like no the Mets clearly couldn’t have just paid more, they were used as leverage to get more money from the Dodgers.
This kind of runaway effect where there is a super team willing and able to spend infinite money making more good players want to play for the super team making it more of a super team making even more good players want to play for it cannot fucking go on like this.
silver lining, I don’t mind that my team is in full rebuild mode anymore, because now there’s no point in trying anyway
Whatever. The anger is Manfred said he would fix Blackouts day one. How many years has he been Commish now? Ten? Blackouts everywhere. Then they added a fucking Clock. Now games are over faster than an NFL game and all the charm, drama and pastoral origins are gone. Greed and dominate winners are normal. 50s Yankees. What’s not normal is not being able to watch your home team because you’re not watching it on Cable or you are in a state that’s nearby another team. The product is supposed to be for the Everyman but only elites can engage with it.