A concerted marketing campaign promoted during broadcasts on the league's streaming services has made it clear that payroll disparities are now unacceptable."Level the Playing Field," the advertising says.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the enemy, they explain with a bar chart showing their payroll and luxury tax bill.Ignoring that the luxury taxes are paid back to the league and redistributed to small market teams.This campaign is designed to increase fan support for a lockout and eventual salary cap.
And it's working.Baseball social media is littered with fans complaining, taking the owners' side, ignoring results and demanding that teams be allowed to pocket more profits.MLB'S SALARY CAP PROPOSAL WON'T FIX THE LEAGUE'S NON-EXISTENT COMPETITIVE BALANCE PROBLEMSStarting pitcher Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers warms up before the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on June 03, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)The insinuation with this coordinated effort is that small market teams or lower payroll organizations, more specifically, have little chance of competing against the big market, big spending franchises.As examples, they use the New York Yankees, those evil Dodgers, then fall curiously silent when looking at the other teams in those same markets.The New York Mets, per Sportrac, actually have the highest payroll obligations this season, in terms of dollars paid in 2026.
Those Mets are 53-68, in last place in the NL East by 19.5 games, and buried 11 games back of the third wild card spot.The Los Angeles Angels play just 30 miles from Dodger Stadium, in the country's second-largest media market.
They haven't reached the playoffs since 2012, and at 46-74, have literally the worst record in baseball with just over 40 games remaining in the season.What about San Francisco? One of the country's largest media markets, a historic franchise with the Giants, and around...