When the 2024 World Series took place, I noticed a lot of people were upset about it. One reason is because it was two teams that most find easy to root against in the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. However, it was also the top two teams in Major League Baseball, which was also two of the biggest markets in the sport facing off on the sport’s biggest stage.
The Dodgers were able to not only sign arguably the best player in the league in Shohei Ohtani, the team also were able to find a loophole in the system and defer his and other big free agents like Teoscar Hernandez and Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Yankees were able to sign one of the most powerful bats in the league in Juan Soto to pair him with the face of the franchise in Aaron Judge. These signings are how the Dodgers and Yankees were able to reach the World Series. Fans of small market teams were upset due to the fact that it seems unfair that these two teams were basically able to “buy” their way to a World Series while their team couldn’t get much. It is true that the Yankees and Dodgers are the two most valuable teams in baseball according to Forbes.com, but the biggest reason why they are so good is because their front offices have one goal, they want to win.
The MLB has plenty of talented teams in the league that can compete at the highest level when healthy but aren’t taking advantage. The Minnesota Twins are a good example of that. The only problem is that its top three superstars in Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis have health issues that have plagued their careers. The Twins owners in the Pohlad family are known to be very cheap and not give those three depth. After a postseason run in 2023 where the Twins finally broke an 18-game postseason winless streak that has haunted this franchise, it was also the first time since 2002 that they looked like a team that could go all the way. Owner Joe Pohlad decided to cut payroll in the 2023-24 offseason by nearly $30 million which led to the controversial release of pitcher Sonny Gray who had a career 2.91 ERA in his two seasons for the Twins. In an interview with Twins media members, Pohlad defended himself and said it was the right move.
“We were headed down a great direction and I had to make a very difficult business decision but that’s just the reality of my work,” Pohlad said. “I have a business to run, and it comes with tough decisions and that’s what I had to do. I wouldn’t make any other decision.”
If that is how you are running a baseball team, you shouldn’t be in the “business” of baseball. Pohlad’s move has ruined fan morale which was at nearly its highest after the 2023 postseason. But ever since he cut payroll, the Twins had a brutal collapse to end the 2024 season where from August 18, the team finished the season with a 12-27 record resulting in an 82-80 season record. Not only did the team end up missing the postseason after at one point having a 90% probability and was in striking distance of the AL Central Division, but the malaise from 2024 has carried into 2025 where the team is off to a 7-15 start as of writing this.
The Twins aren’t the only team that has dealt with a cheap owner. The Milwaukee Brewers have been plagued by a lack of spending these last few years. The infamous trade of all-star closer Josh Hader in the summer of 2022 led to a collapse that season where Milwaukee just missed the postseason. The Brewers have had the ability to make a big signing or make a trade that did work out for them in the long haul, for example the 2017 trade with Miami which saw Christian Yelich come to the Brewers or the multi-team trade in 2023 which saw the Brewers get William Contreras.
Milwaukee also has a lot of young star power. Last season, not only did the Brewers get a platinum glove season from second baseman Brice Turang, they also saw the rise of young phenom in Jackson Chourio. Center fielder Garrett Mitchell, who came back from a long injury in the beginning of 2023, showed promise to end 2024. The problem for the Brewers was in the Wild Card series last season against the New York Mets. It was only the young guys contributing, and if it wasn’t for three combined home runs from Chourio and Mitchell which led to a 5-3 win in game two, Milwaukee would’ve been swept in the Wild Card series for the second consecutive season.
Despite winning the NL Central in four of the last seven seasons, the Brewers have only made it past its opening postseason series once (in 2018, the team lost to the Dodgers in the NLCS). Part of that reason is the Brewers do not spend that much. Brewers fans have openly voiced their frustration with owner Mark Attanasio for not spending big. In an interview with MLB insider Bob Nightengale, Attanasio did not make himself look better.
“Is my job to win a World Series?” Attanasio said. “Or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together?”
This mindset didn’t look too good when at one point in the early 2025 season, Milwaukee had to have two spot starts for its bullpen due to a heavy injury bug in its pitching staff.
Sure, MLB has had a big market issue that showed based off of last season. But the Twins and Brewers are an example of something bigger that haunts the sport; it is the lack of other teams spending. This is especially after the 2023 season where two underdog teams in the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers made it to the World Series. It has been proven that anyone can make that big move to make their team a championship contender. The issue is the owners need to have the guts to allow their front office to make that move. Hopefully the MLB will do something to make other teams spend. Until then, expect more World Series that feature a big market team.
