Something very odd is happening in Major League Baseball. At the same time payroll inequality is reaching levels not seen in more than a decade and barreling toward the imbalance of the mid-2000s, fewer teams are outright punting on their seasons than in recent years. Whether it's because of talent, spending or a subpar division, 26 of baseball's 30 teams enter Opening Day with genuine playoff aspirations.
The two ideas -- massive spending gaps and nearly 90% of the sport eyeing October -- make for strange bedfellows. And yet there's a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon, one that general managers around the game point to when queried about the incongruence: the new collective bargaining agreement.
With it came a higher luxury tax threshold, playoff expansion and anti-tanking measures. Low-payroll teams still bemoan their big-spending brethren, but they can take solace in greater opportunity to participate in the postseason, where the randomness of the game often leads to the antithesis of a chalk bracket.
This year, it feels truer than ever. Large-market, high-revenue teams still often do everything they can to leverage their advantage. After becoming the first team to reach a $300 million payroll a season ago, the New York Mets are no longer alone going into this season: The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees also are projected to go well beyond the mark as calculated by the competitive balance tax this season. (CBT payroll, which takes the average annual value of contracts and adds around $17 million paid to players in benefits, differs from the actual cash spent by teams and is typically higher.) In total, a record nine teams this season are projected to spend more than the $237 million threshold that triggers the CBT.