On December 11, 2023, sports history was made. Professional baseball player Shohei Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time, that was the largest contract in sports history. That record would be broken exactly one year later, on December 11, 2024, when Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets.Â
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a very unique sector of professional sports for a number of reasons, especially when it comes to money. The main reason has to do with the fact that MLB teams don’t have a salary cap, which basically means they aren’t limited to any amount of money to spend on contracts. That greatly differs from the other main professional sports leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA), where salary caps can have enormous impacts on teams and can essentially bankrupt them. Â
The question lies in the reasoning behind the salary cap—fairness. Some cities in the United States are richer and have more expansive economic flexibility to spend on professional sports than others. For example, the money a team has in Kansas City or Cleveland simply cannot compare to the value of a team in New York City or Los Angeles. Â
You may notice the two cities I previously mentioned are the same two cities that house the baseball teams that were able to sign off the two biggest contracts in sports history. Here lies the controversy.Â
Fans in smaller, less affluent cities are becoming increasingly disgruntled with the recent dominance that big-city and big-budget teams have exerted over the MLB. They feel that the sport is now dominated by these massive contracts, and there is an imbalance of talent due to the incentives offered to play for certain teams.Â
The problem of the integrity of sports leagues being undermined by monetary implications is nothing new to the sports world and has even crept into the amateur sports sphere as well. The increasing concern for NIL practices creating similar issues in college sports in the NCAA is a recent issue, but that has enough substance for a completely separate article. Â
At their core, major league sports are a business. Their purpose is to entertain, create revenue, jobs, and an overall great experience for American cities, but sometimes the purpose of promoting and showcasing athletic excellence can be sidelined. Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto are certainly generational talents, and there is absolutely no question that they deserve every penny they will receive from these contracts. However, it is hard to overlook the potential consequences that the precedent these contracts can set for the sports world.Â