Back in March, as the first pitches were being thrown and as the first hot dogs were just being unwrapped, the 2026 Major League Baseball season started under the assumption that it would be the final one before contentious labor negotiations in the winter.
asserted
it → throw → winter
“A lockout is all but guaranteed at the end of the agreement,” Bruce Meyer, the acting executive director of the MLB Players Association, said in February.
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Meyer → guarantee → February
“The league has pretty much said that.”
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league → say → that
We’re now in October, and this year’s World Series matchup between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers is equally intriguing for what it means on the field (the series will literally decide a champion, after all) as for what it means off the field, as terms such as “market size,” “payroll” and “revenue sharing” have become as big a part of baseball as hits, home runs and RBIs.
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terms → ’re → hits
Here’s what to think about as you watch the Fall Classic unfold.
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Classic → ’ → what
These are low-spending teams
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These → spend → ?
For all the concerns about payroll disparity in MLB headed into the season, this World Series features two of the lowest-spending teams in the sport.
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Series → head → sport
The Brewers rank 19th in payroll this season, according to FanGraphs.
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Brewers → rank → FanGraphs
The Rays rank 28th.
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Rays → rank → ?
Their roughly combined salaries — in the neighborhood of $232 million — would still rank lower than eight other ballclubs.
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salaries → combine → ballclubs
And both the Brewers and the Rays had to go through high spenders to make it to the World Series.
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Brewers → have → Series
Milwaukee swept the Los Angeles Dodgers and their $412 million team in the NLCS, while Tampa Bay topped the New York Yankees and their $310 million payroll in the ALDS.
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Bay → sweep → ALDS
As a result, we have a championship matchup featuring two teams in the bottom half of MLB payrolls for the first time since 1991, according to The Associated Press.
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we → have → Press
(It should be noted that the Rays aren’t necessarily a small-market team even if they don’t spend.
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they → note → ?
Tampa-St. Petersburg is the 11th-biggest television market in the U.S., according to Nielsen.)
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Petersburg → accord → Nielsen
Still, this year’s World Series winner will be the first bottom-half spender since the 2015 Kansas City Royals — a rebuke of sorts to what MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had to say about the sport this year.
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Manfred → say → sport
“In order for this game to reach its full potential, we need to continue to address concerns that our fans have, particularly concerns that go to the core of what we’re about — that is, competitive balance,” Manfred said in July.
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Manfred → reach → July
“We need to make sure that fans in markets at the beginning of the season have a realistic belief that their team has a chance to win.”
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team → need → chance
Manfred made the comments amid an ongoing push to institute a salary cap, which MLB has been aggressively pursuing as it claims payroll is correlated to performance.
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payroll → make → performance
(A claim that’s somewhat in dispute.)
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that → ’ → dispute
But the players union, unsurprisingly, views the World Series matchup as another example of the sport’s working just fine.
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sport → view → example
“It’s further evidence that the league’s purported ‘competitive balance’ justification for a salary cap holds no water,” Meyer told NBC News in a statement.
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Meyer → ’ → statement
“But that’s never been the real reason why they want a salary cap.
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they → want → cap
They want it to juice their profits and franchise values.”
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it → want → profits
Will people watch?
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people → watch → ?
Will fan interest dip because these aren’t marquee teams?
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these → dip → ?
Combined viewership for this year’s ALCS and NLCS was up slightly over last year, according to Nielsen.
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viewership → accord → Nielsen
The last two World Series, both of which featured the Dodgers, plus the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays, averaged over 15 million viewers, the most since 2017.
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both → feature → 2017
Tampa’s first World Series berth in 2008 averaged 13 million viewers and was the lowest-rated series in history at the time.
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berth → average → time
Its 2020 appearance played during Covid, and the Dodgers-Rays series drew an average audience of 9.8 million, which remains the second-smallest average all time, per Nielsen figures.
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which → play → figures
Market size has seemed to have an effect on Milwaukee and Tampa Bay during the playoffs.
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size → seem → playoffs
The Rays drew 3.7 million viewers against the Cleveland Guardians after having drawn 4 million against the Yankees, per Nielsen.
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Rays → draw → Nielsen
The Brewers and the San Diego Padres drew only 2.6 million viewers in the Division Series, while Milwaukee vs. Los Angeles was seen by 7.9 million people a night.
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Milwaukee → draw → people
Wait, are these teams even good?
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teams → wait → ?
This isn’t a fluke matchup based on the randomness of the postseason, as the Brewers and the Rays finished at the top of their leagues during the regular season.
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Brewers → base → season
And how both teams made it this far is a feat unto itself.
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made → make → itself
Every MLB team wants to scout prospects well, but doing it consistently is vital for penny-pinchers such as Milwaukee and Tampa Bay.
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doing → want → Milwaukee
“They just don’t have a lot of margin for error,” said a senior executive who oversees scouting for an MLB team, who wasn’t permitted to speak publicly.
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who → have → team
That’s thanks to the ways Milwaukee and Tampa have compensated for their lack of spending power.
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Milwaukee → ’ → power
The Brewers and the Rays have strong Latin American scouting systems, but they rely on slightly different approaches to scouting.
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they → have → scouting
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
