Others Who Narrowly Avoided the List9 of 9

Boston Red Sox (John Henry) and Chicago Cubs (Tom Ricketts)

Every now and then a list will make the rounds online, comparing a team’s revenue in one season to its payroll in the subsequent season, with the intent being to see which owners are actually investing in winning as opposed to just trying to turn a profit.

And both of these teams always seem to rank in the bottom quarter of the league in terms of percentage of revenue reinvested into payroll.

Yes, both the Red Sox and the Cubs generally have much higher payrolls than the Rays and the Marlins of the world.

But there are some franchises that print money to such a degree that really ought to prevent them from ever going through any sort of rebuild, and these are two of those franchises, usually top five in revenue.

Yet, they’ve both embraced fire sales and have paid a combined total of $3.3M in luxury-tax bills over the past half-decade, forever toeing the line while trying not to go over it.

Given their market size and revenue potential, many around the game believe they could, if they chose, spend at levels comparable to the Yankees, Dodgers or Mets.

Chicago White Sox (Jerry Reinsdorf)

Reinsdorf is frequently cited by critics and frustrated fans as one of the most disappointing owners in American sports, and he would have been an easy candidate for the top eight, were there not already something of a succession plan in place for Justin Ishbia to take the reins as owner at some point in the next 3-8 years. That spared the White Sox from our wrath here.

All the same, it’s too little, too late. The White Sox have made the postseason just seven times in his 45 years of owning the franchise, and they have been an unredeemable, triple-digit-losses mess over the past three years.

Miami Marlins (Bruce Sherman)

When Derek Jeter teamed up with Sherman to buy the Marlins in 2017, we thought they might actually start spending money for a change. They didn’t.

And after less than five years as CEO, Jeter didn’t like the direction things were going, leaving his post and selling his four percent share in the franchise.

But they have made the playoffs twice under Sherman, and they were surprisingly competent last year. Given their spending limitations, that’s not too shabby.

But if you want to argue the team should be sold to someone who can actually convince Miami’s population to care about baseball so they’re not dead-last in the NL in attendance for what would be the first time since 2012, point taken.