In 2021, Major League Baseball dumped 42 minor league affiliates. Over at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Will Bardenwerper notes that New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto, with his $765,000,000 contract, “will make in ten at-bats roughly the $700,000 MLB will save annually for each minor league team they cut.”
Here’s more:
The decision to contract the minor leagues broadly reflected the philosophy espoused by New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman: “Bottom line is this is big business. … This should be run like a Wall Street boardroom where you pursue assets. No different than if you’re in the oil industry and you want to buy some oil rigs out in the gulf.”
But is this really the case? What is baseball? Is it our “National Pastime,” an essential, enduring part of American life, as it has been marketed it for decades? Or is it — as the decisions made by MLB’s owners and Commissioner Rob Manfred would suggest — just a business, where efficiency and profits drive all decisions, as if they were manufacturing bathtub liners or selling cement?
Does an enterprise that purports to be part of the fabric of America have a responsibility to prevent that fabric from fraying?
Read the rest here.
