ESPN: Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper ‘cusses out’ MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in regard to the topic of a salary cap
When I came across this story over feeds fed to me over social media, I had some knee-jerk reactions that I debated on commenting in some of the communities in which I saw them. But over the passage of time, I’ve learned to be mindful of audiences, specifically understanding that certain sources have certain readers who tend to get hivemind-ey about their opinions, and daring to say anything challenging to the collective results in unproductive, attack-oriented rebuttals.
Frankly, it always serves as a reminder to why I have a brog in the first place whenever I get shitpost rebuttals from internet trogdolytes who have zero ability to make their own thoughts and exist solely to respond in the contrary to the original thoughts of others.
I have a lot of thoughts about this story about Bryce Harper vs. Rob Manfred, but mostly I have a hard time getting over the whole part of the story where a 32-year old Bryce Harper got way up into the grill of a 66-year old Rob Manfred, in an obvious act of attempted intimidation, going nose-to-nose with a man over twice his age, and thinking it was a good idea in the first place.
Admittedly, I’ve had some back-and-forth opinion about Harper throughout the years, he’s an unbelievably good baseball player, and I can admire the amount of passion he demonstrated with embarking on a mission to bring championship success to Philadelphia, despite the fact that I am rooting against such. But that passion also goes both ways, where at times he comes off as a completely unhinged hothead, prone to enraged outbursts, sometimes justifiable, but still a bad look to be seen screaming obscenities and throwing equipment around, really leaning into that hard-nosed archetype that Philadelphians tend to really love.
But the first thoughts that ran through my head upon reading about Harper’s aggressive approach with Rob Manfred was whoa, tough guy here, getting into the grill of a 66-year old man. Dropping f-bombs from the onset and telling him to get the fuck out of their clubhouse for daring to float the idea of a salary cap.
And the best part was that the 66-year old Manfred reportedly responded that he would not, get the fuck out of here, and stood his ground against Harper, before another player’s cooler head prevailed and attempted to diffuse the situation by chiming in himself with questions of his own. So, so much for Harper’s attempt to intimidate an old man, which is pretty hilarious as far as tragic failures go.
Frankly, Major League Baseball does need a salary cap. It’s bonkers to me that MLB is the one sport that doesn’t have one, and it’s being exploited more than ever now, with the Dodgers and Mets most notably going gonzo with their spending, while the payrolls of all teams across the board continue to escalate, whether or not they want them to.
The luxury tax system they currently have in place which has been trying to act like something of a salary cap is no longer working, as teams are either completely fine at blowing past their threshold and eating the cost of the penalties, or they’re like the Dodgers and are figuring ways to circumvent the threshold, most notably by deferring pay to shift the hypothetical meat of their blockbuster contracts to way further down the line when inflation will help alleviate much of the burden then.
And the flipside to the burgeoning dollars swirling around MLB are the lower half of the league who won’t spend money, won’t try to be competitive, and are completely content to operate mediocrely, because baseball is profitable regardless if you’re a shitty team or not.
The Marlins’ former owner Jeffrey Loria was in a masterclass of operating the team with the lowest possible payroll, while indulging in the revenue-sharing at the end of the season which was usually 2-3 times more than what he put into his team, and he did that for years, before MLB mostly soured on his arrogance and forced him to sell.
But way more teams than the Marlins are doing that these days, and as much as a salary cap is needed, a salary floor is as well, to force teams to spend some money and at least pretend like they’re going to try and field a competitive team.
Anyway, back to Bryce Harper, this whole story, just not a good look for him, overall. Him being so vehemently, angrily opposed to a salary cap just shouts from the rooftops with a megaphone, just how money driven he is. There’s absolutely no other message that comes from his reaction. Sure, he has/will declare that it’s for the sake of all players, but the reality is that my theory is that a lot of his frustration stems from the fact that he signed a 13-year, $330M deal in 2019, which at the time was the most lucrative deal in MLB history, but already in just six years, he’s witnessed guys like Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto cross the $700M threshold, and he’s salty about no longer being the highest-paid cat in the game.
Furthermore, whether it was his at-the-time desire to be liked and accepted in Philly, or he just wasn’t smart enough to have the foresight, his deal had zero opt-out clauses in it, which is kind of bonkers in today’s professional sports, so he’s “stuck” getting paid “just” $26M AAV a year until 2031, where by the time the later seasons come around, set-up relievers will probably be making more per year than he is, at the rate salaries are escalating.
He’ll also be 38 by the time his current deal is over, and if there’s one thing that has remained constant in baseball is that 38 means u old, and no amount of science, fitness, In The Best Shape of His Life™ is going to change the fact that he’s very unlikely to sniff that Ohtani/Soto-tier of annual pay, and the implementation of a salary cap would all but solidify that he won’t have a chance at it, which probably adds to his general rage about the topic.
But what a lot of baseball players and anti-salary cap sympathizers fail to grasp is that the only ones who lose in this pissing contest between owners and players and whether or not a salary cap comes into fruition is the fans. When salaries escalate, it’s not like the team just pays out of their own coffers, they raise prices on the fans. Ticket prices go up. MLBtv subscriptions go up. MLB strongarms television providers to give them more money, television providers turn that cost increase onto fans. Concessions go up in cost or the quality goes down in order to resist the cost. Merchandise either becomes more expensive, or the quality goes down.
There is no facet of baseball fandom that does not become more expensive as salaries escalate beyond just inflation. A salary cap doesn’t stop such from happening, but it would slow it down, and from a guy that once wore a MAKE BASEBALL FUN AGAIN cap, Bryce Harper seems not realize that if there’s one thing that would easily make baseball fun, it’s accessibility.
But hey, keep bowing up to senior citizens and use profanity in menacing statements, Bryce. I’m sure the fans that struggle to financially keep their fandom afloat will be thrilled when they’re more rapidly priced out, because utility players are getting $10M+ deals.
