I want the Dodgers to mulch the Rays. MLB does not need teams duplicating the Ray way. MLB baseball is boring enough. The last thing I want is the Sox and Chaim Bloom replicating the Ray way. I want to see Bloom find pitching talent like the Rays and retain it with the money they have.
Yeah, I actually agree with that. I get why people root for then as they are super smart and beat the odds as a financial underdog, the rays org has done a great job in the last 12 years, no doubt about that. Their front office is probably the best out there and remained so after losing Friedman to the dodgers and bloom to the Sox, they just seem to have a GM pipeline just like they have a prospect pipeline.
However while not really their fault they are doing some things that I don't love:
1. Endless platooning, using openers, tons of bullpen. That makes sense of course as they can't afford stars but for the fans it is more attractive if you have star hitters who bat every day and starters who go 7
2. Exploiting young players while they are cost controlled and then not pay them when they are due to a raise and I'm not even talking just free agency but even arb 2 and arb 3 when they often trade them away. Again very smart but really the deal was underpay young players and overpay veterans and rays avoid that. For the brand value that is not great, baseball is not like basketball regarding to star players but still guys like Ortiz or Jeter who have been the face of the franchise for a decade plus did help with fan identification compared to a big turnover just to gain 0.5 war here and there
This is not the rays fault though, they do their best very effectively but MLB shouldn't allow owners to consistently roll out a payroll that low. It is OK to do that for 3 years in a rebuild but if you do that consistently for 15 years imo teams need to relocate or being sold to another owner. Either it is the owners fault or the market just can't support a mlb franchise. Either way mlb should react.
I would not be against a hard salary cap of let's say 170m but then also force teams to spend at least like 130m, maybe you get a 3 year per decade rebuild exempt from that.
That some teams have 3 times the payroll of others just sucks and wouldn't happen in NBA or NFL and that needs to be changed. Maybe the big spenders deserve some blame but also the consistent salary cellar teams. I'm OK with the orioles or tigers having low payrolls for some time because they are tanking and have spent 150+M before but not with teams like the As, marlins or rays who do that consistently 15 years in a row.