Low Budget — Baseball Bench Coach

I remember walking into my family’s kitchen sometime in late 1968 and seeing my Dad holding the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer with the headline: “Pete Rose Becomes Baseball’s First $100,000 Singles Hitter”. When you are nine years old, it is difficult to know the value of money. My Dad most probably assured me that it was indeed a lot at the time. He would though often remark on the salaries of Cincinnati sports stars compared to those in the “big city markets”.

Most recently, I checked the MLB team payrolls for 2023. Not surprisingly, the Mets and Yankees stood at the top of the list at $346 million and $279 million, respectively. I also checked the bottom of the list. There are nine teams under $100 million, including Miami (ranked #22), Cincinnati (#26), Pittsburgh (#27), Tampa Bay (#28), Baltimore (#29), and Oakland (#30). This piece is about those low budget teams, and how some of them find themselves near the top of the standings this year in over a month of regular season play.

Any narrative of baseball operations begins with the Oakland Athletics and its executive vice president of baseball operations, Billy Beane. Beane is of course the central character of Moneyball, Michael Lewis’ 2003 book on baseball economics which was also made into a film. Beane was the first to apply statistical analysis, called sabermetrics, to baseball. Because of the low budget operations of the A’s through the last few decades, Beane has used his analytical approach to find diamonds in the rough as opposed to bigger name free agents. While the Athletics have had some modest success since its early 1970s dominance, Oakland’s current record, 8-27, does reflect its bottom of the heap ranking in 2023 payroll.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been the surprise story of the National League this year. Not one prognosticator could see their April record (20-8) coming. The Bucs have done it with a mix of veterans (Andrew McCutchen, Brian Reynolds, Mitch Keller and Rich Hill) and outstanding youth (Jack Suwinski, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Roansy Contreras and Johan Oviedo). Pittsburgh is 4th in the MLB in runs scored and 5th in the NL in ERA. While they grew accustomed to “Raising the Jolly Roger” at PNC Park in April, the Pirates just completed a rough first week of May going 0-7.

Not only are the Tampa Bay Rays the talk of the American League so far, but they have put together one of the hottest MLB starts ever (28-7 at week’s end). The franchise began MLB play in 1998. After a decade of futility, Tampa surprised the baseball world in 2008 with its first playoff appearance and the AL pennant. Over the last fifteen years, the Rays have been in the playoffs an additional seven seasons, including another AL championship in 2020. Managed by Kevin Cash, one of the best, Tampa always seems to be in the mix in the very tough AL East.

The Baltimore Orioles are also off to a great start (22-12) and will be knocking on Tampa’s door this season. The Orioles’ championship history began in the late 60s- early 70s and continued when Cal Ripken Jr.’s Birds won it all in 1983. Since then, it’s been quite a drought, until playoff baseball returned last season. The Orioles’ roster includes young stars Cedric Mullins, Ryan Mountcastle, Kyle Bradish, and Yennier Cano, names you might not know now but will be very familiar with in October.

While the Miami Marlins experienced a rough past week similar to the Pirates, the Marlins have shown some early season sparkle too. Miami’s fortunes in their 30-year history is best described as some big hits and woeful slumps. The Marlins have been in the playoffs only three times, yet won the World Series in 1997 and 2003 as wild card entrants. Through last season, they ranked dead last of all the current MLB teams in the franchise win-loss column at 2,157-2,531, a .460 winning percentage.

I smiled this past week when I read a story about Jonathan India, star second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds and the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year. It’s difficult to find many other recognizable names on the Reds’ 2023 roster. In the story India remarked that an umpire told him that he really enjoys watching the Reds play this season. As a fan, my first reaction to the comment was that wins would make it even more enjoyable. For fans of all 30 MLB teams, it’s not where you rank in payroll, but rather in the standings.

Until next week,

your Baseball Bench Coach