Report: MLB owners investigate issues with tanking
Tanking is not thought to be as prevalent in baseball as it is in the NBA, NHL and even the NFL, but there’s been enough chatter and circumstancial evidence in MLB for a few concerned teams to pipe up.
ESPN’s Buster Olney writes that the topic of tanking in MLB came up at the owners meetings in Florida. While he notes the conversations were informal in nature, they were important conversations to have, especially with the collective bargaining agreement expiring in December.
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The Astros are often cited as the most recent example of tanking. Houston dramatically slashed payroll before the 2013 season and went 51-111 to end up with the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft, the third straight year they held the first overall selection. With a core of young, exciting players, including 2012 No. 1 pick and AL Rookie of the Year Carlos Correa, the Astros made the playoffs in 2015 and have been identified as a team on the rise.
What makes tanking in MLB different than the other sports is how the league’s revenue sharing program plays into it. Large-market teams aren’t always happy with how teams on the receiving end of the revenue sharing dollars spend that money. Instead of improving their roster with the additional funds, teams have used them to pay off debt and for partner and executive payments. The fix for this issue seems easy enough, if it is an issue at all. A rule in the new CBA perhaps?
As is the case with all major North American sports, the primary player dispersal system (the draft) incentivizes and rewards failure. The worse the team is, the better the draft pick they receive. As long as that’s the case, the financial have-nots will consider intentional short-term losing for the potential of future success. Where MLB can limit the impact of tanking where the other leagues can’t is with language in the CBA that places restrictions on how teams can spend their revenue sharing gains.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr