Peter Schmuck: Big market domination might be trending, but it isn’t a new concept

When two superstar players have already signed contracts worth enough guaranteed money to have owned their own major league franchises little more than a decade ago, it’s hard to view reliever Tanner Scott’s recent $72 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers as another sign of a looming baseball apocalypse.

But still.

The latest round of big-market spending shouldn’t surprise anyone and – despite the hopes of small-market fandom — won’t lead to baseball adopting a hard salary cap any time soon, but Scott’s deal should spark some concern about the sport’s hyper-inflationary economy.

Everyone knows that the top superstars are going to break salary records on a regular basis. It’s hard to argue with Shohei Ohtani’s giant deal when he’s channeling Babe Ruth. It’s even understandable that the Mets would pay Juan Soto more than $600 million to steal him from the crosstown rival Yankees.

Giving a four-year deal worth an average of $18 million per year to the once-struggling Orioles middle reliever who has only been a frequent closer since September of 2023 — even if most of it will be in the form of a signing bonus and post-career deferrals — just seems kind of nuts.

If that wasn’t enough to spend on bullpen help, the Dodgers followed it up by reportedly signing 38-year-old All-Star reliever Kirby Yates on Tuesday (pending physical) at a price that has not yet been revealed.

With a few obvious exceptions, relievers tend to be unpredictable from one season to another, which is why teams used to be wary of giving all but the most consistent closers expensive long-term deals.

The Dodgers, of course, have the luxury of not worrying about such things since they clearly have unlimited spending power and want to position themselves to repeat and three-peat last season’s championship. Scott and Yates are just icing on an offseason during which they signed pitching ace Blake Snell for $182 million, got highly regarded Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki for a posting fee of $20 million and a $6.5 million signing bonus, re-signed outfielder Teoscar Hernandez for three years at $66 million, and threw $17 million at Michael Comforto for one season. With the Yates deal, they could take their 2025 payroll dangerously close to $400 million.

Can’t really blame them for that, especially since they’ll also be contributing more than $100 million to MLB’s competitive balance tax system this year, but their offseason spending spree is only going to encourage their big-market counterparts to keep pace and further widen the gap between baseball’s haves and have-nots.

The only question is whether anyone should care. Major League Baseball’s shared national broadcast revenue continues to grow and who knows how much more is out there with the major streaming sites getting into the act.

No small-market teams will ever be able to sign the sport’s first billion-dollar superstar, but some of them have proven to be resourceful enough to keep the big guys honest. The Orioles won the American League East just a season ago and reached the postseason again in 2024. With the four-tiered playoff system now in place, there will always be room for an October surprise.

The O’s, of course, are going to need a February or March surprise to make up for the free-agent departures of ace pitcher Corbin Burnes and switch-hitting slugger Anthony Santander. Executive VP/general manager Mike Elias has made some moves and spent some real money, but not enough to satisfy fans who were hoping that new owner David Rubenstein would give him a blank check.

Or at least as much as the Dodgers spent on one of their castoff relievers.