When the Texas Rangers filed for bankruptcy last season, it was revealed that they still owed a number of players large sums of money, including over $20 million to Alex Rodriguez. Yesterday, when the Los Angeles Dodgers filed for bankruptcy, we learned that in addition to the $8.33 million they were forced to pay Many Ramirez last month, they still owed money to a number of players, including Marquis Grissom who hasn’t donned the Dodger blue for 9 years. Bobby Bonilla is going to receive compensation from the New York Mets until the year 2036, a full 34 years after he played his last professional game.
Baseball has traditionally left teams alone in the way they sign and pay players, at least to a much greater extent than the other sports. Both the NFL and NBA have salary caps while the MLB has only a “luxury tax” designed to slightly encourage richer teams to curb their spending. Needless to say, it has had little effect. The NBA faces a looming lockout set to start June 30 and one of the issues that has been raised over and over has been a restriction on long term contracts. To prevent teams from over paying mediocre talents on long term deals, as NBA franchises are wont to do, the new CBA may create a 4 year maximum for new player contracts. For the NBA, this seems like a good idea. Players decline rapidly in basketball and with only 5 men on the floor at any given time, one bad player in the game only because of his enormous salary could do a lot to sink a team ( why teams can’t restrict themselves from signing bad long term deals is beyond me but they’ve shown time and time again that they can’t). The NFL doesn’t see this as a necessary rule as players breakdown quickly due to the physical punishment of football and rarely serve out long term deals. It’s important to note that football contracts are non-guaranteed so if a player gets cut, his contract is void. Therefore, there is no issue with paying players long after they’re useful.
Luckily, baseball’s collective bargaining agreement isn’t up anytime soon but next time the players and owners come to the table, restricting long, long term deals may be something they should talk about. Clearly, as the Dodgers and Rangers, and even the Mets with their financial woes, have proved, paying large sums of money to players paying for other teams or those not playing anymore at all has an adverse effect on the organization.
I think there should be limitations placed on deferred payment such as the contract the Mets have with Bonilla. Bud Selig rejected a recent proposal by the Dodger’s owner Frank McCourt because he said the terms of the way McCourt wanted to finance the team “mortgaged the future of the franchise.” Does borrowing money that needs to be repaid “mortgage the future” anymore that than the Mets in 2001-2 telling Bonilla they’ll pay him more than $1 million a year in 10 years for 25 years? I’m not so sure.
I have no idea what percentage of teams still owe money to players that are long gone. The figures aren’t public. I can’t tell you if the Red Sox are still paying Trot Nixon or the Rays are still paying Wade Boggs. I would think not though. Those teams are way to savvy to pour money down the drain with unfriendly deals like that. Teams like the Rangers, Mets, and Dodgers, clearly aren’t savvy enough to stay out of trouble and keep themselves solvent. For them, and to prevent any more teams like them from emerging, the MLB should consider stepping in and banning the type of long terms deal that gets organizations into trouble. Commissioner Selig has certainly not been adverse to intervening in situations and asserting his will. He should do that here, it’s the right thing to do.
-Max Frankel
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