Jaxbuck said:

That is apples and oranges though.

M&A deals are done by investment bankers and they destroy value for firms at something like a 75% clip (someone probably has better data than I do). The deal makers make all the money.

VC shops are not investment banks. They typically create value (regardless of stereotypes and catchy names people give them) and in cases like this where the company doesn't really need money their capital is usually used for strategic purposes more so than day to day operational money.

Railing against anyone who makes a deal of any sort is like saying all lawyers are ambulance chasers.

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Jaxbuck said:

The thing is, the Reds are in the middle of a fat middle of teams in terms of MLB payroll spending. All of these ownership groups can't be cheap bastards. It's got more to do with the economics of the game in it's current CBA state imo.

Here are the 2025 payroll bands sorted from smallest to largest inside each band:
< $100M

• Miami Marlins — $64.9M
• Oakland Athletics — $74.9M
• Tampa Bay Rays — $79.2M
• Chicago White Sox — $80.9M
• Pittsburgh Pirates — $87.9M

$100–150M

• Cleveland Guardians — $102.5M
• Washington Nationals — $107.2M
• Milwaukee Brewers — $114.8M
• Cincinnati Reds — $116.0M
• Colorado Rockies — $122.0M
• Kansas City Royals — $129.6M
• St. Louis Cardinals — $141.5M
• Detroit Tigers — $142.4M
• Minnesota Twins — $142.8M
• Seattle Mariners — $150.0M

$150–200M

• Baltimore Orioles — $159.4M
• San Francisco Giants — $173.0M
• Los Angeles Angels — $192.7M
• Chicago Cubs — $192.8M
• Boston Red Sox — $193.6M
• Arizona Diamondbacks — $195.5M

$200–241M

• Atlanta Braves — $208.1M
• San Diego Padres — $208.8M
• Texas Rangers — $217.5M
• Houston Astros — $220.2M
• Toronto Blue Jays — $239.2M

$241–300M

• Philadelphia Phillies — $284.0M
• New York Yankees — $284.8M

> $300M

• Los Angeles Dodgers — $319.5M
• New York Mets — $322.6M

Painting with broad strokes here, the only two "big market" teams I see that won't spend are the White Sox and Marlins. I don't have any data on the market sizes but to the naked eye you can see the size of the city go up almost as you go up the list of payrolls.

I think this speaks more to what has to be done in 2027. Cap and floor or whatever you can't have regional demographics be the determining factor for the have's and have nots resulting in the fucking Mets paying more in luxury tax than the Reds (and many other teams) spend on total payroll. This just can't keep working this way.

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