How Cheap Are the Dolans, Really?

One of the biggest complaints about the Cleveland Indians from their own fans is the stereotype that faces almost every team owner in every sport ever, that they are cheap. It is seen and heard anywhere Tribe fans gather that Larry and now Paul Dolan will never spend the kind of money necessary to win a World Series and new ownership is needed. While the fact that the Indians are never able to sign the highest level of free agent or even retain their own superstars is often sited, is this enough to state that the Indians ownership team is considerably more frugal than the average Major League owner.

To start, it should be noted that the general average salary of any professional sports team has more to with the team’s income than how rich or willing to spend the owner is. With that in mind, the best way to judge the cheapness of the owner is by seeing if and how much they increase spending when their team is competing or about to compete for a play-off spot. The chart below shows much salary information in the Majors since 2000, when the Dolans took over the team from Dick Jacobs. From left to right are the Indians total salaries for each season, the Indians rank in salary of the 30 teams, the average MLB team salary as well as the highest and the lowest in baseball.

There is a lot of information above, covering a span of 15 seasons and for the Indians alone, almost a billion dollars spent in salary (just over $992K to be more precise). To start, the easiest thing to look at is simply where the Indians ranked in terms of total salary in baseball. As can be easily seen, in the early years of the Dolan take-over, the team was still saddled with the end of the expensive long term contracts signed in the early and mid 1990’s. In 2001, Larry Dolan’s first full season in charge, the Indians owed $35.38M to just five players, all hold overs from the Jacobs years. In addition to these five (Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton, Roberto Alomar, Charles Nagy and Travis Fryman), who combined were being paid more than double the Twins entire roster, the Tribe brought in two free agents for a total of almost $20M in Chuck Finley and Juan Gonzalez. That season, the Indians spent more on players than all teams except for the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Mets and saw a quick exit from the play-offs from the Mariners, who had also seen their superstars leave town recently (Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Randy Johnson), yet only spent $75M on their team.

With Gonzalez, Alomar and Lofton gone in 2002, the Indians total salary dropped, but they remained in the top ten in the league despite not being that high as far as talent is considered. This is where the stingy rumors likely stemmed from. After signing big name free agents, like Gonzalez, Finley and Ellis Burks, during his first few seasons at the helm, the Indians began a more conservative strategy. Instead of trying to buy a championship, focus came back to building at a lower level through draft and trade, dropping $30M in salary from the team in a single season. This rebuild lasted from 2003 through 2006 and was largely successful, despite the fact that the Indians were generally in the lower third of the league in spending. In 2007, the Indians returned to the post-season, and while they didn’t improve the roster through free agency, the team saw a large increase in pay-roll due to arbitration raises and long term extensions (the chart to the right shows the highest paid player for each season and the percent of the total salary they were paid).

This jump in salary brought the Indians back to the league average in 2008 and 2009, but as the Indians results were still below expectations, pay-roll dipped again to the bottom third from 2010 to this day. What appears to have happened is a man bought a sports franchise, went overboard trying to achieve the impossible, then no longer had the means to pay even the average league salary. The spending sprees on big contracts to type A free agents early in the Dolans ownership, including Gonzalez and Kevin Millwood could have made it impossible for them to do so now. While the average team salary has jumped by about $50M and the top teams have jumped by $125M since 2001, the Indians have essentially sat in place (in fact, their 2014 total was below that in 2001). While the Major League minimum salary has not raised much since that time, those of the superstars have. In 2002, the Indians balked at the near $100M, seven year contract that Jim Thome signed with Philadelphia, but if he was in the same situation now, he would likely start the bidding at $200M.

There is no simple answer to whether or not the Dolan family is “cheap” or just smart. Bringing in external talent to a dwindling team is the most expensive approach (the one the Yankees are likely to pursue again this year) and one that was very unsuccessful for Cleveland in the early 2000’s. Instead, focus has been maintained on the minor league system, trades and low risk free agents and it has lead to the best consecutive seasons since 2000. With top talent now demanding between $20 and $30M per season, it is more and more important to take advantage of cheap young players. The perfect example of this is MVP finalist Michael Brantley (2014 WAR of 7.0), who will be paid $30M total over the next four years and recent trade rumor Matt Kemp (2014 WAR of 1.1), who is owed $21.5M per season over each of the next five years. By building internally instead of purchasing externally, the Indians now have a vastly superior player for a considerably smaller amount.

The Indians could spend more money. They could get into bidding wars over the next Aroldis Chapman who could turn out to be more Danys Baez, or they could continue the internal focus. Even if the Indians did sign or trade for a $20M per year player this off-season, chances are the most important players in 2015 will be the ones who were the most important in 2014. For those who still consider the Dolans cheap and want some new billionaire to buy the team, maybe it is time for you to buy into a new team. I recommend the Yankees, who are the complete opposite of the Indians, throwing away talent at every opportunity and spending as much as possible, irrelevant of the ultimate results. In addition, they already have so many band wagon fans they won’t notice one more and your donations will help add to their impressive salaries. If this solution doesn’t appeal to you as a fan, try looking a little deeper than just dollars.