MLB admits that teams don't always intend to contend

An MLB committee was formed to consider among other things how to have more competitive balance. Mainly seeming to address the issue that the AL East has the 2 biggest payrolls in Boston and the Yankees and it is extremely difficult to get to the playoffs if you are in that division. It is also very difficult to get the wild card from these 2 teams in the AL. Each of the last 15 years at least one of those 2 teams made the playoffs. This is in part due to the lack of max/min salary cap in MLB which would help to balance talent throughout the league. If you look at the NFL it is clear to see that salary cap doesn't solve the issue all by itself. There are MANY other factors, but when one team spends 2-8 times as much as others on player salaries it sure gives a big advantage. I digress...

The committee is throwing around the idea of teams being able to move between divisions.

"One example of floating realignment, according to one insider, would work this way: Cleveland, which is rebuilding with a reduced payroll, could opt to leave the AL Central to play in the AL East. The Indians would benefit from an unbalanced schedule that would give them a total of 18 lucrative home dates against the Yankees and Red Sox instead of their current eight. A small or mid-market contender, such as Tampa Bay or Baltimore, could move to the AL Central to get a better crack at postseason play instead of continually fighting against the mega-payrolls of New York and Boston." article here

It is actually a logical idea considering the last 15 years in the AL East. At the same time it is also almost horrifying to come out and blatantly state that your team has no intention of doing well this year. I'm not sure if I should laugh, cry, or applaud the MLB committee.

It is laughable to think that there are people getting paid this much money with no expectation for them to win. As an owner (or whoever makes the decision to move the team's division) you are stating to all of your fans, that you are folding before you have even played a game. Why as a fan would you bother going to the games and cheering your team if you know that from the top of the organization they gave up? I can understand that this would happen every so often if you needed to rebuild, but if it happens rarely then it would not be a problem that needs to be fixed. The problem is that this is almost an every year thing for many teams.

At the same time, I do applaud the committee for admitting that there are teams that from the beginning don't intend to contend. They admit that right now nobody has the money to compete regularly with Boston and the Yankees. They admit that it is going to take some radical steps to work around this issue if they aren't allowed to fix it.

If they really want more competitive balance, they need to do some sort of revenue sharing and salary limits (top and bottom). It doesn't have to be as hefty as the NFL, but they need to do more than they are doing, because the division realignment, is like putting a band aid over a broken leg. It doesn't address the real problem.