At some point along the way, the reporting has become fixated on the payroll as the sole indicator of the team's fortunes. I get that it's a bellwether and if there's indeed some new self-imposed cap, then I'll be upset (they've said several times that there's not).
I continue to think they should spend and I hope they will. But focusing on the payroll number alone, to this degree, seems really strange.
I think this is fair. As an example if Breslow could trade Story and replace him with Matt McLain, trade Yoshida and sign Montgomery, the payroll would be call it $20m lower than it is right now. But the team would be much better. Granted, those aren’t realistic, but the theory is correct.
I would disagree about the self imposed cap because, well, Kennedy literally said there was a self imposed budget (and didn’t say what that is). It could be $225m, it could be $200m, it could be $300m, but Kennedy literally said there was in fact a budget, which is a self imposed cap. Doesn’t mean they’ll never go over it, doesn’t mean they‘ll spend up to it, but he said it exists. Directly. In public.
FWIW, I do agree about the focus on the number being overblown. Case in point, I 1,000,000% think they should spend $25m per year on Montgomery or Snell (at this point in time). I would in no way advocate giving $10m to Stephenson, $10m to Duvall and $10m to Ryu just because it’s spending $30m (or $5m more).
I don‘t (and won’t) crush them for spending $200m to win 76 games but not being willing to spend $230m to win 79 games.
Honestly, I think the latter approach was MORE insulting to fans. The implication that a team built like that could contend for titles was, is, and will continue to be asinine.
Now, I remain upset that there is a clear and obvious baseball need, not just for 2024 but for the medium term, that there are (or were) multiple pitchers out there that could have satisfied that, and that they have not (and apparently will not) give any of them multiple year deals.
I commend them for realizing Adam Duvall, Michael Wacha and Corey Kluber type deals are not going to be worth jack and not trying to lie to the fan base that signing those type deals is what it takes.