The Indians did not budget enough money in 2021 to both re-sign Cesar Hernandez and add free agent Eddie Rosario. With those two completing the lineup, the Indians’ roster is more-or-less set with a payroll around $50MM, per Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. Take this for what it is, but the Indians exceeded payroll just to get there. Owner Paul Dolan made an extra concession to allow the addition of Rosario. To their credit, he represents a somewhat major addition given their inability to field above-average offensive outfielders. Over the last two seasons, Rosario slashed .271/.305/.494 with 45 home runs over 821 plate appearances, good for a modest 105 wRC+. That Nolan was willing to stretch the payroll speaks volumes about how the Indians value Rosario’s fit in the lineup.
- Spencer Patton is throwing an improved change-up with the hopes of bringing three viable pitches out of the bullpen, per Robert Murray of FanSided. The 32-year-old right-hander led Nippon Professional Baseball with 57 appearances last season, which is no small feat to MLB teams aware of the perils in ramping up pitcher workloads in 2021. Patton’s numbers from Japan won’t blow you away, however, with a 4.92 ERA, respectable 28.1 percent strikeout rate, and slightly-concerning 11.7 percent walk rate. Patton will throw for teams again on February 2nd, with the Braves, Rays, Angels, Royals, Rangers, and Giants being among the teams to have shown some interest thus far.
- Pitching has long been the focus for the Nationals organization, but at the same time, they’ve lagged behind in the catching department, writes MASNSports.com’s Mark Zuckerman. Pedro Severino is the most prolific homegrown catcher with 105 games played for the organization – though he didn’t break out until joining the Orioles. Raudy Read or Tres Barrera are next in line to have an opportunity, but the recent signing of Alex Avila suggests GM Mike Rizzo isn’t ready to give either one too long of a look out of the blocks. Both Barrera and Read have served PED suspensions in the past, however, and Welington Castillo will also be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Spencer Patton would be a low key addition to the Royals reunion tour. Played an off the radar role in the 2014 pennant as the guy we traded to the Rangers for Jason Frasor, who was an important middle innings piece in that bullpen.
For fifty mil, that’s about as well as you can construct a team!
$50 million is stretching the payroll? Good grief.
What would you do if you had $50m? Spend it on entertainment?
Giddy yup!
If my net worth was $4.6 billion? Yea, I’d be willing to drop $50m for one year of entertainment
If I owned a cash cow business, like a MLB team, I’d spend $50m on upgrading that product.
What an assinine response. These billionaires that own teams shouldn’t buy them if they can’t afford to actually operate them. The Indians could be one of the best clubs in the entire league right now (seven deep in the rotation) if Dolan wasn’t penny pitching. The goal is to win, not make a buck. The rich have tons of other disastrous ways to suck money out of thin air. Should they really be rent seeking with their sports teams which tax payers usually subsidize? F no.
What a dumb comment. Dolan shouldn’t own the team if he can’t afford to operate it. He’s for sure got enough sleezy ways to make money without rent seeking with his professional sports teams.
They are one of the few teams that actually lost money last year so gotta make up for it this year I guess.
No team lost money last year. They lost profits.
Wrong
Wrong? Actually you are both wrong. None of us really knows who made or lost money last year. And that is the way MLB wants it. They don’t really want any of us, or the union, to know exactly what their financial health is. That way they can cry poor, not spend on free agents this off season and try to leverage that into concessions from the players next off season in the CBA negotiations.
Actually you are wrong the Braves are publicly traded so their books gotta be open to the public
You see their financials and it can give an idea of what other teams finances look like
They didn’t “get money” from MLB, so technically is true that they lose money, money that it’s almost like a grant, not really theirs to begin with
I disagree.. I don’t want to get into the whole debate on $.. but, I believe only a select few of players would chose not to play, if every player made league min. The owners should consider supporting the fans and communities who shore up the sport, the business. The fans are the ones who are bamboozled, we’re just too blind to see it. The GameStop stock is a perfect example.
If I had to chose between Eddie Rosario and Cesar Hernandez making $5+ mil or $550k and the owners donating (profits) to our planets needs exp education/healthcare/clean water.. I’d choose the latter. I truly believe Eddie and Cesar would still play, and the owners would still profit (maybe even more) because of the cause. The fans need to stand together and make the difference.. Alright, I’ll stand down from my Irish spring soap box now. Lol
Don’t be silly.
Look at how the use accounting tricks to make it look like they lost money.
The national tv deals pay more than $50 million a team.
No revenue sharing or fans in seats. I’d bet heavily that several teams lost real money last year.
That doesn’t change the fact that several owners are just cheap and don’t spend that revenue sharing money on payroll during normal years
They didn’t lose money
No team lost money they just didn’t make as much as they did last year in correlation to what they had to pay out.
It’s crazy a team can say because the season before they may $200 million profit but the next year only made $50 million profit that means they last money.
It’s not they only didn’t make as much as the year before.
Between the National & local TV contracts the internet revenue and appeal sails there is not a poor team in sports.
The tv contracts pay more than payroll from the door.
Teams don’t want everyday fans in the stands because what do they do go to 1 or 2 games a year and can’t afford anything in the stadium ???
Owners want ppl that go to games and look at them as events and go there and don’t even pay attention to an outcome
They go spend money on food & drinks at the bars or restaurants it’s a night out
They want real true fans at home watching games on tv because they know they will watch every game therefore boosting up ratings and selling the tv contracts for more money
There is not a salary cap in baseball because owners don’t want it not because the players don’t because the owners would then be forced to open their books
And don’t get me started on the Gsmestop nonsense
The little guy getting hurt how bout all the ppl
That have their investments in hedge funds pensions for firemen police etc
Another case of millennials coming into the game thinking they are smarter than they are and then when they get their card pulled they want to cry bout how they changed the rules
No rules got changed all it did was show all these ppl these apps on their phones don’t have the cash to pay ppl out if everyone cashed out at the same time
Sounds kind of like having state run teams, capping the earnings potential of the people who perform better than others and using the surplus money that is made from them being underpaid (relative to the $ they create) to pay for education & health care. Seems fair to me.
Don’t get the gamestop reference though.
This!
Owning a baseball team in many ways is like farming, the goal is to break even over a ten year period. The benefits the tax write off against other businesses, that’s why you don’t see any more Al Davis types that are strictly owners of a team. In a large market like SF you can also profit from the stadium being used for events, but ultimately it’s a status symbol, and an equity play as the limited supply of teams ensures the value will never truly drop for an extended period, much like farm land.
Since you apparently refused to do any research before writing your opinion article, the Braves lost roughly 65 million in the calendar year. Not lost profits. Lost money. As in they had money and then they didn’t. As in their operating costs were higher than their revenue.
While I still think Dolan is a terrible owner, it’s hard to argue some of the money issues. Even when the Tribe was successful their attendance numbers didn’t go up very much. It sucks, but it is what it is.
Isn’t it fun to tell other people what to do with their money.
I’m sure you wouldn’t mind some bloke like me telling you what you’re allowed to earn, and what charities to support right?
A far, far, far, better system is one where each of us are encouraged to both make as much money as we can, and, to choose to give away as much as you want to the causes that pull on our individual heart strings.
It’s incredibly arrogant to think you, or your elected politicians, have the right to decide what anyone is allowed to make, and which causes have to be supported to “make the planet better.”
Teator, Glad some one actually brought some numbers to the discussion. Here’s a few more for 2019 and assume 2020 was a worse year for most teams. According to figures from Morssglobalfinance.com the most comprehensive breakdown I could find, after payroll 2400 million was netted by mlb teams. That’s 80 million per year plus merch, parking, stadium advertising, and concessions as these figures were not included, likely because with various agreements it would be difficult for a 3rd party not named the IRS to find out what the team actually made from these revenue streams. Now that sounds like a lot but it varies from team to team, and there are considerable expense not included in these numbers as well. Operating cost such as electricity water sewage and trash new turf chalk equipment ect, marketing, front office employee expenses, travel expenses minor league contracts, taxes, and various other expenses I not owning a team can’t even think of. I would wager any team outside of NY LA Boston SF Chicago and in a good year Houston and Philadelphia loses money on a regular basis making it up in playoff years and by writing the losses off against other business, until ultimately they make their money back on equity when they sell the team. Hence why the teams fight the idea of expansion so much and wanted to contract MiLB. Thank you for posting the braces numbers I was going to look that up next but you saved me the time now I can get back to my spreadsheet showing the 7-10 billion the dodgers spends over the last 30 years trying to win a World Series vs the 2-3 the Giants spent to win 3.
Teator, most people know next to nothing about basic finances. Present company excluded. Good factual post, by the way.
Some don’t understand the difference between revenue and profits. It takes quite a bit of revenue to surpass overhead and even begin to entertain profitability.
Without league-wide data, mandatory disclosures by the Braves, a public company, are the closest thing we have.
Sorry Scott, I really wasn’t trying to offend you or anyone, which I obviously did. You’re correct I don’t have the right to tell anyone what they should and should not spend their money on. I think of us more as a whole, than individuals. Everyone has their own beliefs and thoughts, mine is certainly not any better than yours.
Just sharing my thoughts. When I was in the Army I felt like $ didn’t get in the way. Every rank made the same throughout.. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses, but we all carried each other. Top down
The fans are the ones who are bamboozled, we’re just too blind to see it. The GameStop stock is a perfect example
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1-No, I am a fan and I am not being bamboozled. I spend my entertainment money as I see fit. I have no problem with spending $13 for an ice-cold Becks at Y.S. Same goes for $120 to see Paul McCartney, or $12 on the next Star Trek movie. Folks need to quit taking sides. Once I pay for my ticket, it is no longer my money It makes no difference to me how you split it up.
2-Gamestop is an investment. As long as both sides are following the applicable laws, the libertarian in me says both sides should be allowed to gamble.
3-There is already plenty of money for education. What we lack is the will to allow equal access.
4-There is plenty of money spent on healthcare. What we lack is the discipline to stay healthy. When I used to have oversight on our spending, if I could magically cull out the mostly self-inflicted expenses of diabetes, smoking, alcohol, and all the related expenses, my boss could’ve paid the bill out of petty cash.
They are the only one, so no, you really can’t assume that their books give you an idea of how the rest of the leagues financials look.
Honestly, I’m not trying to offend anyone.
I just think it’s silly when fans argue “the players are being wronged” or “the owners have the right to not spend” same old argument. I think players would play just as hard, if their was a “humanitarian cause” given to the sport. I think the sport as a whole would grow exponentially.
While I still think Dolan is a terrible owner, it’s hard to argue some of the money issues.
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He might be a terrible owner, but he is probably the most successful, from a fans’ perspective.
From 1901-1994, they made the playoffs 3x. In the past 8 years, they made the playoffs 5x. A different structure, of course, but even structure aside, they have the 2nd best record in baseball over those 7 years.
Given the size of the market, Dolan is probably the best owner in baseball.
I think players would play just as hard,
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I agree they would play hard. I played hard when there was nothing but beer at stake.
But both they, and the owners, are allowed to make whatever they can. So if I am willing to pay $26 for my ticket, and $13 for a beer, then that is what the owner should charge. After that, it is up to the owners and players to chop up my money.
You do realize that the Strike of 94-95 was mostly over a salary cap right? The owners Do want a salary cap. The players do not.
I’m bamboozled? Baseball has given me far more than I can ever give back. You think I’m too blind to see? I think you are too ungrateful to recognized that each season is a gift.
I don’t care how much players or owners make.
Just because people have ideas of reform, does not mean they’re ungrateful.
You’ve honestly never once complained about a FA your team did or did not sign? Do you think money is not the root cause of that?
I think there can be give and take on both sides. And everyone can benefit from it as a whole. Similar to Ohio’s Lottery Profit Education Fund. Is it perfect? Absolutely not!! But, it has done wonders to the education system . We as Americans & Canadians are so fortunate to be given the gifts we have, and I think it would be “interesting” to put our entertainment dollars to humanitarianism per se.
Should I have the right to tell someone what to do or what they should spend their resources on? Absolutely not. It’s just an idea. I’m certainly not saying it’s an end all save all, just an idea on how it may help the sport and our communities
I know I need my neighbors because their gifts and talents support me and my community, and vise versa with the gifts I was born with, for them.
Uhh ohh, I’m deep in the rabbit hole. Someone get me a light! Lol
Baseball revenue was down but so was expenses all on the baseball side. But what made the Braves lose money was on the property development around the stadium. The bills still gotta be paid for everything around the stadium but all the shops, restaurants bars etc don’t have the walk up consumers
That’s where they lost money how many teams around baseball own all the property around their parks ?
Now small business around the parks everywhere are devastated but how many of those properties are owned by the teams ????
Everyone looks at the fact that the fans are not there and the teams lose that money but they don’t look at all the minor leaguers that did not have to be paid
The Braves took a hit in the property not the baseball profits
The Braves don’t get that much from the property, compared to the revenue from games.
For the third quarter of 2020, the Braves got $102 MM in revenue from baseball and $8 MM in revenue from The Battery. The numbers from 2019 were $203 MM from baseball and $9 MM from The Battery.
Bottom line. Through the third quarter of 2020 (fourth quarter numbers come out in a couple of weeks), revenue for the Braves went from $442 MM in 2019 to $143 MM in 2020. The team went from having a $12 MM profit (revenue exceeding expenses) in 2019 to having an $88 MM loss (expenses exceeding revenue).
We know the Braves didn’t lose money last season, just profits, because their books are public.
Pads Fans52 mins ago
We know the Braves didn’t lose money last season,
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Did you read the post from pdxbrewcrew? He laid out all the numbers. If you think the Braves were profitable, kindly advise where is analysis is wrong.
Yes, well, if everyone stopped watching games on TV and wouldn’t pay over $10/ticket costs of everything would go down. Dont hold your breath.
Why would I want to stop watching BB?
@teator
Ha-ha-ha…terrible owner indeed.
What does that make the Angels owner?
The Mariners owner?
The Orioles owner?
The Tigers owner?
The Pirates owner?
Or any number owners of perpetually losing teams?
The Dolans are “terrible” owners. Get outta here with that nonsense. Who do you think hired this fantastic front office? The tooth fairy?
@JoeBrady
The Tribe has the 3rd best record in the AL all-time, only trailing NY and BOS. (7th all time if you include the NL)
The record the last 30 years has only added to the distance between the Tribe and the rest of the AL all-time.
But does that stop CLE fan from bitching, moaning, groaning, and complaining?
Of course not. They are the dumbest, most uninformed fans in the game, not to mention the most self-entitled. Oh, and they have all these lousy, self-righteous opinions without even going to the games! Amazing.
the profit share from M:LB is around 27 mil,isn’t it? the team can only afford 23 mil?
Cleveland is a team I give a pass to. When they were spending during their peak contention years that was them stretching the payroll. The problem is that even in the years around the World Series appearance they were not selling out games. Honestly, I can’t tell you why. When I visited the stadium it wasn’t a bad experience or some crazy drive to get there. If this team can’t get good attendance at their best what should Dolan expect as they get worse?
+1
They will be over .500 too despite the tiny payroll. As a Tribe fan I’m pretty pumped about this off-season. Lindor’s upcoming free agency was just hanging over our heads and it’s nice to get some fresh faces in there. The team was stuck in neutral these past few years with no resources to improve.
Catching is tough to develop for anyone it seems the last decade and a half. I would just like to see my favorite team (Boston) cease drafting any in the top 5 rounds at all, unless said catcher is some kind of can’t miss. pretty much half the teams out there are in the same boat as the Nat’s and rely on either an IFA, or lucky draft pick from lower down to work out.
Whether it is kids just not in with the major effort involved with all the chores involved with catching lately, or not being prepared coaching wise at both the HS and collegiate level on a grand scale.. Catching in general at the amateur level has been horrid in preparedness for a initial taste of the pros.
Or teams have a catcher in the minors who have MLB ready bats and just stick them in the outfield to get on the field. Takes a long time to develop catchers in the minors and teams want the bats fast
Dodgers got a good system for their catchers. Will Smith was lower rated than Ruiz, yet he’s a top-5 MLB catcher at 25.
Reed should be Nats catcher soon. Tough with no games last year however. He should take over soon enough.
Kick him out for PEDs.
Nah just kick him in the nads
If CLE trades Amed Rosario to CIN for Aquino, they’d save some salary there too.
You meant Dolan not Nolan.
It’s not a Zencka article without at least one glaring typo.
He also forgot the Nationals signed Blake Swihart. I don’t know how he made the typo. D and N aren’t even that close to each other.
well Indians do have Nolan Jones so… that could be it. chill out
Did you mean Nolan? I think that you meant Dolan.
Exceeded budget for $50M. It’s back to the 70s – 80s Indians! Any team a Dolan touches is doomed.
If Cleveland is that hurt financially why are they not blowing it all up
They could get a great haul for JRam from the Braves or Dodgers and probably an even better return for Bieber from Yankees or Blue Jays.
perceived value of the franchise. they’re setting up to sell. at least, we all hope.
and, for the record, if they could get a haul from your Braves, they would have traded him.
The owners did not do revenue sharing last year. Between that loss of income and loss of fan income 2020 was brutal to teams like Cleveland.
They are hoping it’s a one year thing and can compete again with those guys.
if revenue sharing is your saving grace after cutting costs in prior years you needb a hard look in the mirror.
Ramirez is on a team friendly deal for his value and Bieber is still on a pre arbitration contract. The Indians have a strong farm system. No need to blow it all up.
Not saying there is a reason all I am saying is if they are putting a budget in either go the route of the Pirates or go hard to compete
Nothing worse than being caught in the middle
Funny how Indians are on a limit but the Browns can pay their guys snd make moves to better their team
Same market
Revenue distribution in the NFL is completely different than in MLB. Local media revenue is basically nothing for NFL teams. The Browns have pretty much the same amount of money to spend as every other team. Can’t say that about the Indians.
dolan needs to go
Can anyone out there tell me what Rosario’s numbers have been at Progressive Field in Cleveland and against the Indians overall? I know he has killed them.
That’s interesting. I was wondering if Rosario’s numbers might tick up without having to face Cleveland pitching. Shows what I know. haha
Progressive is a good park for lefties with pop, so he should put up a few more dingers and, if he learns a little discipline, more walks.
His numbers at Progressive Field are insane.. he has an OPS over 1. He also have good number overall against CLE but it appeara most of the damage was at Progressive.
In 45 games in Cleveland, Rosario OPS is 1.031
Overall vs Cleveland in 93 games, it is .897.
The jettisoned three of their four highest paid players and the are over payroll? Sounds more like Dolan telling the fans “look what i did for you”…
Halo11 is going to freak out when he sees the Angels aren’t looking at someone better for the pen
Terrible journalism. The article doesn’t even mention the salaries of Rosario and Hernandez and the central theme is about salaries/ budget.
Apparently this is an ongoing problem based on Lloyd Emerson’s comment ‘it’s not a Zencka article without at least one glaring typo.’
Theres plenty of sites where you can go and pay for “journalism”
The problem is that most sports journalism is divided between English majors, who don’t know anything more than maybe the top 10 FAs, or the BB people, who know the top 100 FAs, but are a little shaky on the writing.
Personally, as long as the writer knows BB, I can usually figure out the writing. But if you don’t know BB ,then you could write a sonnet, and it would be useless.
Does not matter what the Indians budget is, they just call Preller and re-stock the farm. Gees, one team I hope the Padres don’t trade with anytime soon.
$50 million is sstretching? wha
According to Cot’s, 11 of the 30 teams have payroll projections of less than $100M for opening day. 8 are in the AL and 3 are in the AL Central. And no team as of now exceeds the CBT threshold of $210M. Indians are 29th in the league in payroll (Pittsburgh 30th) and will not have a single player making more than $10M
You can expect some of the numbers to shift. Still plenty of FA’s out there who will get MLB contracts including the biggest fish this year, Trevor Bauer. But this is some serious austerity going on this year.
A lot of that has to do with it being the ‘Central’. It’s been a long time since those cities have flourished. And all those cities, except Chicago, have smaller populations than The Bronx alone.
While it’s really none of our business what each privately owned team makes or doesn’t make, everyone seems to have their own opinion on how profitable baseball is a whole. Since the Braves are public (and a successful franchise with a great television deal) they are the closest thing we have to understanding MLB finances. In their best years, they have made over $100M in Operating Profits; however, their Net Income is negative in most years. There are significant, non-player salary expenses in baseball. In 2019, the Braves had a total payroll of $160M, but their total expenses were over $400M! Benefits alone cost each team over $15M, not to mention all the costs of the front office, the minor league affiliates, the ballpark employees, travel expenses and of course capital expenditures. Owning a baseball team (or any professional franchise) is more about the prestige than the profits. Sure, some teams make money but it’s not why the owners are billionaires. I don’t mind paying $100 to go see a game once in a while; there’s nothing better than sitting outside on a summer night and enjoying a baseball game. If an owner wants to run his franchise into the ground then he can do so. Fans generally show up for winners though, so tanking just leads to lower revenues and lower profits or bigger losses. There are plenty more billionaires itching to get into the old boys club, so these owners have options to cash out whenever they want to. I’m just a fan of baseball and I’m thankful that at least 1/2 the owners are trying to build a winner one way or another. Let’s just hope there is a full season and we all get to enjoy the sport we love.
D_M, I couldn’t agree with you more.
About fair-weather fans. They only show up and turn on the TV when the going is good. I love fair-weather fans.
I don’t know who told you the Braves have a great Tab contract but although it was improved upon recently it is still one of the worst in baseball
yep, still hurting from that TV contract…but I will admittedly say I’ve never really known why, its just what we’ve heard for almost 15-20 years now. Why was it so bad to begin with?
According to Fangraphs, the Braves are 8th in MLB in local TV revenue, with $86 MM a year.
Back in November, when budgets were being set, how much fan attendance there would be in 2021 and when it would start was still very much up in the air. Now that it’s looking like there might be at least some by the beginning of the season, teams that have more of a reliance on revenue from attendance are starting to loosen up the purse strings.
Wilson Ramos may not have been homegrown talent but he basically broke onto the scene with the Nats. He barely cracked the league before he was traded to the Nats his rookie year.
This is what you call Time To Sell the team. I get that the part owner bought his home town Royals. Fans get it. They can’t buy a baseball team for the most part. Sell to Billionaires and go back to being fans with the rest of us.
So the Pirates are catching flak for coming off a last place season and trading away notable players for prospects, yet we have teams like the A’s, Indians and Rays almost praised for doing the same WHILE being very good teams. Something’s not quite right here.
I don’t get the impression anybody is giving the Pirates any flack for what they are doing
I think the owner just catches flack because people feel he didn’t spend the money to push his team over the top when he had his chance and then they made a half ass attempt to go for it again that costed them
I think for the most part fans are happy they are tearing it down with a plan on place
I love it when people talk about the Pirates owner not spending money on the team. I always point out that in 2015, when the Pirates were making a third straight playoff appearance, the team finished 15th in attendance.
Maybe the owner doesn’t spend money on the team because when the team is successful, fans still don’t buy tickets.
Something’s not quite right here.
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I like to tell people that a double standard exists, because a lot of times, a double standard is a good thing. A friend of mine showed up early for a budget meeting, just him and the CEO. He pulls out a lottery ticket from his pocket, with four winning numbers. The tells the CEO, ‘two more numbers and I’d have told you all to f yourselves’.
Had another guy, the tax manager, tell the CFO what was wrong with his golf game. ‘You have a LOFT problem’. The CFO thinks for a minute and asks ‘what’s a loft problem>?. The tax manager, in front of a room full of people tells him ‘Lack Of F’ing Talent’. People were laughing so long and so loud, they never got the meeting back under control.
The point being, the two guys mouthing off had serious talent. Other people, with less talent, would’ve had a problem. Sometimes that’s a good thing.
I agree to disagree with the finances of these teams
Especially the Braves I don’t got the time or energy to post here my conclusions and how I drew rhyme y’all won
In other words, you don’t have any proof whatsoever of what you think, but because YOU think it, it MUST be that way. Nay, it IS that way.
I love those types of responses. It literally screams out ‘I am right because I think I am right’. I could claim the earth is flat, and then say I am too busy to prove it.
I agree to disagree with the finances of these teams
Especially the Braves I don’t got the time or energy to post here my conclusions and how I drew them y’all won
The last time I looked, the idea was to win baseball games, specifically enough ball games to qualify for the playoffs, which gives you a spot in the final race to the world series.
No pennants are run up the flag pole for most dollars spent or for most prospects collected.
Break me off a piece of a Kit Kat.
Isn’t the true value in any sports team, the price the owner can get for flipping it?
Do any teams ever lose value?