Major League Baseball Would Be Fun Again…With 15 New Owners

New York Mets fans are thrilled with their owner Steve Cohen. The lifetime fan of the Amazin's paid a record $2.4 billion for the team in 2020. Cohen hasn't stopped investing in his investment. That's what smart money people do. Some Major League Baseball owners are trying to make rules that would prevent owners like Steve Cohen from making such investments. In fan interest, MLB should politely tell those owners: sell their teams!

This winter when the modern day Babe Ruth, Aaron Judge, hit the free agent market, it was minutes before Hal Steinbrenner told the media that money will not get in the way of bringing Judge home. It didn't. Steinbrenner respected the wishes of his team's fanbase and laid down the cash. Why can't every team be like that? They can.

According to statista.com, Major League Baseball teams earned about $40 million each in revenue sharing in 2022. Each team received another $60 million in national television and streaming agreements. That is $100 million per team before they even open their doors, on top of their own regional television and media income. Then why do eight teams field rosters with payrolls lower than $100 million? Those owners are pocketing profits at the expense of their product and most importantly, fans.

If MLB would require the bottom 15 teams to either spend or sell, baseball may start to trend in the right direction again. Each year the sport suffers fan interest losses. New owners that want to invest in their team and the surrounding communities are out there. If current MLB owners don't want to spend the money, they can buy a minor league team.

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The Los Angelas Dodgers are the perfect example of an investment group that was ready to play ball and immediately compete financially. Plenty of those groups are out there, along with guys like Steve Cohen. Check out one of today's podcast interviews on The Drive with Charlie & Dan today with Deesha Thosar of Foxsports.com. She had an exclusive interview with Cohen and talked to us about it.

Baseball is struggling in many ways. In 2023, a bunch of innovative ways to speed up the games have been introduced, including larger bases and a pitch clock to keep the pace of the game moving. The may help. But right now, in Pittsburgh, they'll just speed up the rate at which the Pirates lose and the fans go home disappointed. 15 owners need to sell their team and take MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred with them. We can leave it up to the fans to nominate the 15 owners that need to go. I can think of a few!