The Table Setter, Jan. 17, 2024: Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell, and Cody Bellinger are in the Wrong Generation

[Matt Braun]

What to do when the heroes are no longer heroic

In a different era, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell, and Cody Bellinger would have been the crown jewels of a free-agent class. Montgomery, a recent playoff hero; Snell, a Cy Young honoree fresh off his second award; and Bellinger, a bounceback case who showed flashes of the dynamic, tantalizing athleticism that made him a superstar at just age 23. Any of these three players would bring tremendous joy to whatever organization signed them—likely leading their decision-makers to anoint them as saviors in whatever specific overtones they saw fit. 

But here we are halfway through January, listening to silence on whether any of these men will join a franchise soon. 

It’s simply a different time now. While those previous descriptions are accurate enough, each player owns an obvious downside. Montgomery strikes out fewer batters than you’d like; Snell’s relationship with the strike zone is often nebulous; and Bellinger’s under-the-hood numbers speak more towards mere goodness rather than greatness. The flaws matter more these days; we know—or think we know—the ideal production shape of a player at each man’s position, and that shape is mighty cruel. Good teams rarely risk acquiring a player outside of that mold. 

So: is this a good thing?

I think a lot of sports are wrestling with the analytical revolution and its consequences. The NBA can’t contain its own offense, the NFL can’t start theirs, and you are probably already well-versed on the aesthetic downside of modern MLB games. Efficiency is not always in the best interest of the game or the fans who hold expectations on how that game should look and feel. Some trimmed fat is genuinely good—thank god head coaches realized that punting on 4th and short is for cowards—but this rapid movement towards playing the same style of the same variation of the same concept is… boring. It gets stale. A team of guys striking out at a 27% clip only reinforces the old stereotypes that block prospective fans from tuning in and enjoying a ballgame. 

I don’t think it's a death sentence for the sport that teams are holding reservations about a few players that are admittedly flawed. We don’t need to force the Mike Hampton contract on teams simply because we dislike their process. What would be nice, though, is if each team had the means to reasonably sign players of Snell’s caliber without needing to stare down the maw of a lengthy rebuild if he falters ever so slightly. Someone likely would have snatched up all these men long ago if the game wasn’t wholly focused on conservatism and skeptical analysis. 

I suppose I just don’t like what the stalemate says about the player-franchise relationship. Teams seem to assume the worst about each player, and while that may be the safe move, doing so is lame, to steal a term I used in my prior table setter. I don’t know what exactly would create a better system, but I know this one isn’t the best it could be.

 

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[DJL44]

Part of this is Scott Boras. He tends to get his free agents signed one at a time in priority order.

[Dave Borton]

Quote

I think a lot of sports are wrestling with the analytical revolution and its consequences.

Partly, have to agree.

The slow 'hot stove' is also about money. Agents are demanding huge contracts relative to generations past for relative talent which cut into the owners' margins. Why sign that $22MM/yr contract when added benefits neither assure more victories nor enhanced revenue. These 3 players don't have that wow factor.

Personally, I see the game/business moving into an era of diminished margins for owners. Deferred salaries will begin to mount up. Baseball doesn't hold the attention of culture for a box office draw or media revenue like football does. Would love to be in the room when the "less wealthy" owners take on the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Padres, and Rangers owners.

Meanwhile, Twins will rescue another DFA'd pitcher, assign him to St Paul, and ask the priest to have a novena for a new pitch that the organization can teach, all for the cost of a few tix when the Pirates come to town..

[Reptevia]

I think the more esoteric the analytics get, the increased focus on minutiae, the more areas that a player can be found wanting.   It is getting easier and easier to talk yourself out of signing a player. Just another example of how analytics is ruining baseball. 

[TopGunn#22]

This should be an exciting time for baseball fans.  Instead, it's like watching paint dry, inside your house on a beautiful summer day.  Let's face it.  Owning a pro sports franchise is pretty much a license to print money nowadays.  Some teams, like the Dodgers or Yankees have tremendous revenue advantages due to the insane amount of money their local TV and media deals bring them. 

If you're Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or Kansas City this is a real problem.  If you're the Twins, in a mid-market that budgets in ways often difficult to understand, it's frustrating.  Consider this:  Cincinnati is a city of about 300,000 people.  I know this this because just this morning I heard on the news that each day, about 300,000 people cross our southern border illegally, and it was mentioned, that's roughly the size of Cincinnati.  Mpls/St. Paul has a population of 3,691,918.  That's TEN TIMES the population of Cincinnati !

Now I know that doesn't mean you should just multiply the Twins payroll by 10x Cincinnati's but the Twins are NOT a small market team.  I'd love to see a way that MLB could make it possible for the Reds or Royals to be able to sign a guy like Snell,  Montgomery or Bellinger.  The Twins, based on market size alone SHOULD be able to compete for either of those 2 lefty starters. 

I know there is a luxury tax and some form of revenue sharing, but something is not working right when the Dodgers can sign Ohtani, Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez and trade for Tyler Glasnow's $25 million dollar 2024 contract.  And the Dodgers probably aren't done.  It's fair to point out that despite winning a World Series in the Covid season of 2020 the Dodgers haven't won a full-season World Series since 1988.  The Yankees since 2009.  That's a testament more to how poorly these teams have been managed both on the field and in the C-Suite despite their enormous revenue advantages.

Baseball ownerships and front offices just don't seem to care about the fan.  Imagine the excitement in Minnesota if on Friday the Twins announced a 3-year deal with Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery??  We won our division last year.  We finally won a playoff game.  We need a SP.  We REALLY need a LH SP !  There are two just sitting there.  But there is inertia in MLB.  Nothing's happening.  

Derek Falvey just stated that the FA market seems to break later and later each year but that he fully expected the market to MOVE by mid-January.  Well Derek, it's January 17th today.  That's about as "Middle of January" as you can get in Minnesota.  Instead, all I have to comfort my baseball and Twins fandom are "wind chill factors."  Ugghhh!  

[weneedneshek]

18 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

If you're Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or Kansas City this is a real problem.  If you're the Twins, in a mid-market that budgets in ways often difficult to understand, it's frustrating.  Consider this:  Cincinnati is a city of about 300,000 people.  I know this this because just this morning I heard on the news that each day, about 300,000 people cross our southern border illegally, and it was mentioned, that's roughly the size of Cincinnati.  Mpls/St. Paul has a population of 3,691,918.  That's TEN TIMES the population of Cincinnati !

The MSP metro area has 3.7 million, just Minneapolis and St. Paul proper have under 1 million. I imagine they were only using Cincinnati proper for the 300,000 figure. The Cincinnati metro has 2.25 million which is much closer

[roger]

1 hour ago, TopGunn#22 said:

This should be an exciting time for baseball fans.  Instead, it's like watching paint dry, inside your house on a beautiful summer day.  Let's face it.  Owning a pro sports franchise is pretty much a license to print money nowadays.  Some teams, like the Dodgers or Yankees have tremendous revenue advantages due to the insane amount of money their local TV and media deals bring them. 

If you're Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or Kansas City this is a real problem.  If you're the Twins, in a mid-market that budgets in ways often difficult to understand, it's frustrating.  Consider this:  Cincinnati is a city of about 300,000 people.  I know this this because just this morning I heard on the news that each day, about 300,000 people cross our southern border illegally, and it was mentioned, that's roughly the size of Cincinnati.  Mpls/St. Paul has a population of 3,691,918.  That's TEN TIMES the population of Cincinnati !

Now I know that doesn't mean you should just multiply the Twins payroll by 10x Cincinnati's but the Twins are NOT a small market team.  I'd love to see a way that MLB could make it possible for the Reds or Royals to be able to sign a guy like Snell,  Montgomery or Bellinger.  The Twins, based on market size alone SHOULD be able to compete for either of those 2 lefty starters. 

I know there is a luxury tax and some form of revenue sharing, but something is not working right when the Dodgers can sign Ohtani, Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez and trade for Tyler Glasnow's $25 million dollar 2024 contract.  And the Dodgers probably aren't done.  It's fair to point out that despite winning a World Series in the Covid season of 2020 the Dodgers haven't won a full-season World Series since 1988.  The Yankees since 2009.  That's a testament more to how poorly these teams have been managed both on the field and in the C-Suite despite their enormous revenue advantages.

Baseball ownerships and front offices just don't seem to care about the fan.  Imagine the excitement in Minnesota if on Friday the Twins announced a 3-year deal with Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery??  We won our division last year.  We finally won a playoff game.  We need a SP.  We REALLY need a LH SP !  There are two just sitting there.  But there is inertia in MLB.  Nothing's happening.  

Derek Falvey just stated that the FA market seems to break later and later each year but that he fully expected the market to MOVE by mid-January.  Well Derek, it's January 17th today.  That's about as "Middle of January" as you can get in Minnesota.  Instead, all I have to comfort my baseball and Twins fandom are "wind chill factors."  Ugghhh!  

Suggest you do some fact checking, TopGunn.  The Minneapolis/St. Paul population you quote is for the MSP Metropolitan area.  Minneapolis, like Cincinnati has a population of 300,000 something.  To compare apples to apples, the greater Cincinnati area has a population of a bit over 2,000,000.

So yes, the Minneapolis metro population is larger than Cincy.  But Cincinnati has several other large cities within an easy drive, whereas Minneapolis does not.  Dayton (500,000+ metro population) and Columbus, which is also over 2,000,000, are both within an hour and a half drive.  Add Lexington, Ky (700,000 metro area population) which is an hour away and you have a significantly larger population who can easily go to Reds games than Minneapolis.

Agree 100% with your comments that the baseball revenue model ain't working and needs to be fixed.  As for the odds of that happening, expect that is unlikely.

EDIT:  Just did a stat check.  Within 125 miles, Minneapolis has a population of 5.2M, Cincinnati has over 12.0M.  More than double the Twins Cities.

[Major League Ready]

This conclusion / position is hard to understand given the number of huge contracts this off-season.  Teams are taking enormous risks.  Are teams supposed to just give free agents whatever they ask for?  How does that make the game better?  I really don't get the downside for fans given they are ultimately the source of funding for these enormous deals.  It's not like the players quit playing.  They just don't get exactly what they want.  What's the downside for fans.

[Karbo]

I agree that MLB needs to do something to address the inequity between the NY teams and some of the west coast teams. What the Dodgers have spent this year is just crazy, even with the deferred contracts. There are so few teams that can compete with that kind of spending it creates an imbalance. I don't have a solution, short of a hard cap that the players will never agree too, does anybody else?

[strumdatjag]

Teams are realizing that baseball is a sport played best by players in their prime (ages 26-31).    Justin Verlander, Nelson Cruz and others who excelled as they aged into their thirties are aberrations.   So - Why sign a player likely to decline, just because he has been good in his prime in the past?   Why even sign a player for one or two seasons in those prime years, if the team will be on the hook for three seasons where performance (and durability) is likely to decline?   
The big market teams can risk these moves, because they can afford to limit, bench or release their former stars.  Here in a mid to small market area, we will be left for years watching those stars who become stiffs. 
I prefer relying on player development and resorting to free agency to fill in gaps or when there is a tremendous “bargain” (but be careful on the latter). 

[TwinsDr2021]

12 minutes ago, Karbo said:

I agree that MLB needs to do something to address the inequity between the NY teams and some of the west coast teams. What the Dodgers have spent this year is just crazy, even with the deferred contracts. There are so few teams that can compete with that kind of spending it creates an imbalance. I don't have a solution, short of a hard cap that the players will never agree too, does anybody else?

and yet in the last 23 world series The Dodgers and Yankees have 1 more world series than the Twins (and the same as the Rangers, Nationals, Cubs, Royals, Phillies, White Sox, Marlins, Diamondbacks) and the Mets have the same amount.

Sure money helps, but it is no where near as important and developing/trading for talent and a little luck. (having a really good FO/organization is part of the developing and trading piece)

[Matt Braun]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

This is a hard to understand conclusion / position given the number of huge contracts this off-season.  Teams are taking enormous risks.  Are team supposed to just give free agents whatever they ask for?  How does that make the game better?  I really don't get the downside for fans given they are ultimately the source of funding for these enormous deals.  It's not like the players quit playing.  They just don't get exactly what they want.  What's the downside for fans.

To me, the best system maximizes prime talent in a way that splits player movement in an equal way. Essentially: the A’s should have as much of a chance as anyone to sign Aaron Judge when he hit free agency. This doesn’t happen. About 2/3 of the league can be safely ignored when players of a high caliber hit free agency, and the teams in the middle have to be deathly worried about what happens at the back-end of the deals they hand out, rather than be excited for signing a great player. 
 

That’s the issue: if Montgomery’s whiff problem proves more fatal than previously estimated, whoops! There goes like four years. 

[mikelink45]

I am not sure if I can agree with the conclusions - Take Scott Boras out of the equation and we get earlier signings.  He has always played the waiting game.  Take the multi-millions and the extended years and things change.  It could be that Bally is giving teams a chance to rethink what they are spending and how.  Call it the Pujols affect or Hampton if you want to go back in time like the essay.  Sports spending is ridiculous and beyond the grasp of simple fans like me.  

Of course pre-free agency baseball disappeared after the WS and game again in February and in the meantime players like Bob Allison sold cars or pumped gas or did something to bring in dollars in the off season.

Since we fill the off season with speculation let me add that Snell is the perfect short start replacement for Sonny Gray.  Look for him in a Twins uniform. 

[Karbo]

35 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

and yet in the last 23 world series The Dodgers and Yankees have 1 more world series than the Twins (and the same as the Rangers, Nationals, Cubs, Royals, Phillies, White Sox, Marlins, Diamondbacks) and the Mets have the same amount.

Sure money helps, but it is no where near as important and developing/trading for talent and a little luck. (having a really good FO/organization is part of the developing and trading piece)

But don't ignore the fact that these players are no longer available for other teams to sign. When the top few teams can get the top of the player pool I feel it takes away from the integrity of the game.

[old nurse]

There are two factors slowing down free agency. The failures of the Mets and Padres last year is one.  San Diego had to borrow money to make payroll. Fan attendance was even up by about 1 million fans from before the pandemic an spending spree started. Teams are not going into red ink. The other thing is 5/185 and 10/300+. If the pitcher think they can get DeGrom kind of money they are not going to be a quick signing.. Montgomery has had consistently good outcomes, but he is no DeGrom. Snell has ha inconsistent outcomes. Bellinger had 2 down years before having a great season.  That is the delay for signing him. What are you going to get. 

[old nurse]

2 hours ago, roger said:

Suggest you do some fact checking, TopGunn.  The Minneapolis/St. Paul population you quote is for the MSP Metropolitan area.  Minneapolis, like Cincinnati has a population of 300,000 something.  To compare apples to apples, the greater Cincinnati area has a population of a bit over 2,000,000.

So yes, the Minneapolis metro population is larger than Cincy.  But Cincinnati has several other large cities within an easy drive, whereas Minneapolis does not.  Dayton (500,000+ metro population) and Columbus, which is also over 2,000,000, are both within an hour and a half drive.  Add Lexington, Ky (700,000 metro area population) which is an hour away and you have a significantly larger population who can easily go to Reds games than Minneapolis.

Agree 100% with your comments that the baseball revenue model ain't working and needs to be fixed.  As for the odds of that happening, expect that is unlikely.

EDIT:  Just did a stat check.  Within 125 miles, Minneapolis has a population of 5.2M, Cincinnati has over 12.0M.  More than double the Twins Cities.

Thinking that fans are going to drive 2-3 hours each way is a fatal flaw in your argument. Going to a game becomes a ay trip, not an evening’s entertainment.  That is not saying the other guy is right

[TopGunn#22]

I appreciate the comment from Roger and gave him a thumbs up.  But I also think Old Nurse makes a good point about driving 3-hours to see a baseball game.  Now, I will admit that I've done EXACTLY THAT a couple times.  Once to see the Cards play the Cubs at Wrigley with my kids and a couple times to St. Louis to see the Cards play the Twins.  But that was before Target Field and I missed outdoor baseball and wanted to see it in a great atmosphere like Busch Stadium or Wrigley.

The economic conditions in baseball are not fair, but as I said, the long-time drought of the Dodgers and Yankees is more a case of bad managers (nobody can do LESS with as much as he gets than Dave Roberts) or just ineffective front office moves like the Yankees.  Just because those "Big Boys" are inept, doesn't mean baseball's economics aren't out of whack.  

[roger]

2 hours ago, old nurse said:

Thinking that fans are going to drive 2-3 hours each way is a fatal flaw in your argument. Going to a game becomes a ay trip, not an evening’s entertainment.  That is not saying the other guy is right

Read my comment carefully, old nurse.

Dayton is an hour away.  As is Lexington.  Columbus is only an hour and a half.  The first two are similar to driving from Hudson  or Owatonna.  Certainly an easy drive for a 7pm game.  Granted Columbus, the biggest market, is further.  But that is also less than 2 hours.

But my response was mostly about correcting his argument that Minneapolis was 10x larger than Cincinnati.

[old nurse]

19 minutes ago, roger said:

Read my comment carefully, old nurse.

Dayton is an hour away.  As is Lexington.  Columbus is only an hour and a half.  The first two are similar to driving from Hudson  or Owatonna.  Certainly an easy drive for a 7pm game.  Granted Columbus, the biggest market, is further.  But that is also less than 2 hours.

But my response was mostly about correcting his argument that Minneapolis was 10x larger than Cincinnati.

Hudson is 30 minutes away with no traffic.  Never, traffic at events. It only takes seconds to get in an out of downtown parking., in. An out of events 

[Major League Ready]

3 hours ago, Matt Braun said:

To me, the best system maximizes prime talent in a way that splits player movement in an equal way. Essentially: the A’s should have as much of a chance as anyone to sign Aaron Judge when he hit free agency. This doesn’t happen. About 2/3 of the league can be safely ignored when players of a high caliber hit free agency, and the teams in the middle have to be deathly worried about what happens at the back-end of the deals they hand out, rather than be excited for signing a great player. 
 

That’s the issue: if Montgomery’s whiff problem proves more fatal than previously estimated, whoops! There goes like four years. 

That would be great as a fan of the Minnesota Twins.  Unfortunately, any such system would change team values by billions of dollars.  It also would not maximize revenue to the league.  A good team in Milwaukee is never going to generate anywhere near the revenue it does in NY / Boston, etc.  The players wanted revenue sharing decreased and they fought hard to increase the luxury tax threshold so the players would also NEVER allow such a system without a prolonged strike.  Any system even remotely close to what we want as a lower revenue market is never going to happen.  The only way to combat the inequity is to follow practices that manage assets accordingly.

[Trov]

23 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Part of this is Scott Boras. He tends to get his free agents signed one at a time in priority order.

The fact all three have Boras is one of the main reasons.  First, he is known to hold out on signings, but he also looks to work on one client at a time, unless deals blow them away.  He tries to sets markets for all his players. 

[DJL44]

21 hours ago, Matt Braun said:

To me, the best system maximizes prime talent in a way that splits player movement in an equal way. Essentially: the A’s should have as much of a chance as anyone to sign Aaron Judge when he hit free agency. This doesn’t happen. About 2/3 of the league can be safely ignored when players of a high caliber hit free agency, and the teams in the middle have to be deathly worried about what happens at the back-end of the deals they hand out, rather than be excited for signing a great player. 

The A's aren't trying to win. They make more money losing than winning.

[DJL44]

18 hours ago, roger said:

Read my comment carefully, old nurse.

Dayton is an hour away.  As is Lexington.  Columbus is only an hour and a half.  The first two are similar to driving from Hudson  or Owatonna.  Certainly an easy drive for a 7pm game.  Granted Columbus, the biggest market, is further.  But that is also less than 2 hours.

But my response was mostly about correcting his argument that Minneapolis was 10x larger than Cincinnati.

More important, the Reds games are on TV in Dayton, Lexington and Columbus. TV money dwarfs ticket revenue.

[Major League Ready]

2 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

More important, the Reds games are on TV in Dayton, Lexington and Columbus. TV money dwarfs ticket revenue.

With ticket revenue comes concessions and apparel sales.  The MLB average for a family is of 4 is $266 or $66.50/person.  I would assume that couples spend more per person.  However, if we use $66.50/person, a team drawing 2.5M fans would generate $166M.  So, if we view this a TV vs in person attendance, teams like the Red and Twins generate far less revenue from broadcasting rights.

[JD-TWINS]

23 hours ago, TopGunn#22 said:

This should be an exciting time for baseball fans.  Instead, it's like watching paint dry, inside your house on a beautiful summer day.  Let's face it.  Owning a pro sports franchise is pretty much a license to print money nowadays.  Some teams, like the Dodgers or Yankees have tremendous revenue advantages due to the insane amount of money their local TV and media deals bring them. 

If you're Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or Kansas City this is a real problem.  If you're the Twins, in a mid-market that budgets in ways often difficult to understand, it's frustrating.  Consider this:  Cincinnati is a city of about 300,000 people.  I know this this because just this morning I heard on the news that each day, about 300,000 people cross our southern border illegally, and it was mentioned, that's roughly the size of Cincinnati.  Mpls/St. Paul has a population of 3,691,918.  That's TEN TIMES the population of Cincinnati !

Now I know that doesn't mean you should just multiply the Twins payroll by 10x Cincinnati's but the Twins are NOT a small market team.  I'd love to see a way that MLB could make it possible for the Reds or Royals to be able to sign a guy like Snell,  Montgomery or Bellinger.  The Twins, based on market size alone SHOULD be able to compete for either of those 2 lefty starters. 

I know there is a luxury tax and some form of revenue sharing, but something is not working right when the Dodgers can sign Ohtani, Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez and trade for Tyler Glasnow's $25 million dollar 2024 contract.  And the Dodgers probably aren't done.  It's fair to point out that despite winning a World Series in the Covid season of 2020 the Dodgers haven't won a full-season World Series since 1988.  The Yankees since 2009.  That's a testament more to how poorly these teams have been managed both on the field and in the C-Suite despite their enormous revenue advantages.

Baseball ownerships and front offices just don't seem to care about the fan.  Imagine the excitement in Minnesota if on Friday the Twins announced a 3-year deal with Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery??  We won our division last year.  We finally won a playoff game.  We need a SP.  We REALLY need a LH SP !  There are two just sitting there.  But there is inertia in MLB.  Nothing's happening.  

Derek Falvey just stated that the FA market seems to break later and later each year but that he fully expected the market to MOVE by mid-January.  Well Derek, it's January 17th today.  That's about as "Middle of January" as you can get in Minnesota.  Instead, all I have to comfort my baseball and Twins fandom are "wind chill factors."  Ugghhh!  

Some Broad Strokes that aren’t real accurate but understand your premise …….. 300,000/day is 109,000,000/year - that would be a really big problem. That aside.

Don’t feel too bad for the Reds! I live in Cincinnati & have been here since ‘91 (from MN) ……….similar to St. Paul in the City but over 1.6million with surrounding suburbs. Dayton - Columbus - Indianapolis - Louisville - Lexington are all 100 miles or less from the Stadium……,that’s gotta total at least another 4.5 - 5 million potential bodies……they are the oldest franchise in the game and are extremely cheap & it shows in their attendance. Also, a very proud fan base that attend games in a very fickle nature. They were in playoff mix in September & had under 20,000 on a beautiful night……happens often.

Reds paid Ken Griffey Jr!! Reds paid Joey Votto!! ………..it’s a choice. They can do it.

Twins are paying CC $34M/year - can’t omit that just because it’s old news.

I completely agree that keeping the payroll at $140M (10% reduction) is the bottom of where the team should be. If they move Polanco, they could sign Montgomery by next Friday at $26M/year. Fingers crossed!

[Major League Ready]

20 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

The A's aren't trying to win. They make more money losing than winning.

A couple years ago I compiled the win/loss data back to the turn of the century for all of the teams in the bottom half of revenue.  The A's had the most 90 win seasons and best overall record.  Only the Guardians and Rays were anywhere close.  They also had a better win percentage than half of the teams in the top half of revenue.  

[JD-TWINS]

16 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

More important, the Reds games are on TV in Dayton, Lexington and Columbus. TV money dwarfs ticket revenue.

Indy & Louisville are, closer in one case & same as Columbus, in another. Plenty of fan base. From a Cinti. resident.

[DJL44]

11 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

With ticket revenue comes concessions and apparel sales.  The MLB average for a family is of 4 is $266 or $66.50/person.  I would assume that couples spend more per person.  However, if we use $66.50/person, a team drawing 2.5M fans would generate $166M.  So, if we view this a TV vs in person attendance, teams like the Red and Twins generate far less revenue from broadcasting rights.

MLB as a whole makes over $1B more from broadcasting and advertising revenue than it does from gate receipts and concessions. It's nearly a 60/40 split with 60% of the money coming from broadcasting, licensing, etc and 40% from in-person attendance.

[DJL44]

10 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

A couple years ago I compiled the win/loss data back to the turn of the century for all of the teams in the bottom half of revenue.  The A's had the most 90 win seasons and best overall record.  Only the Guardians and Rays were anywhere close.  They also had a better win percentage than half of the teams in the top half of revenue.  

And they stopped trying to win as soon as MLB took away their restrictions and made them a revenue sharing recipient again.

Details On The Athletics' Revenue-Sharing Status - MLB Trade Rumors

[Major League Ready]

1 minute ago, DJL44 said:

MLB as a whole makes over $1B more from broadcasting and advertising revenue than it does from gate receipts and concessions. It's nearly a 60/40 split with 60% of the money coming from broadcasting, licensing, etc and 40% from in-person attendance.

Yes.  I would imagine we read the same accounts of revenue during covid.  I was not considering national broadcast revenue given they are not impacted by the issue with RSNs and the national money does not change.   I thought the context was local TV revenue given the national revenues are not in jeopardy.