Everyone said the same thing after Dodgers signed Blake Snell
Apr 8, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Blake Snell (7) pitches against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports
Los Angeles Dodgers fans are ecstatic about the team’s recent Blake Snell signing. Every other fan base? Not so much.
News dropped on Tuesday that Snell was signing a five-year deal with the Dodgers. The move comes just a year removed from an offseason where the Dodgers signed then-free agent standouts Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Several fans on X echoed a similar sentiment after the Snell news broke. Many called for MLB to implement a salary cap to prevent big-market teams from hoarding all of the game’s top free agents.
Time for a salary cap in MLB.
— Ryan Field (@RyanFieldABC) November 27, 2024
Okay we need a salary cap @mlb https://t.co/Ogm0oaPk9N
— Joke đ (@Jokeeee_) November 27, 2024
MLB needs a salary cap or something. This is getting ridiculous.
— Michaela Bennett (@MichaelaB_22) November 27, 2024
As fans of the NBA know, implementing a salary cap does not completely prevent teams with deep pockets from having a competitive advantage. But it does make it much more difficult for teams to abuse such an advantage to the extent that some MLB teams have the capacity to.
Some felt as though capping team salaries wasn’t the bigger issue, but rather the ability of teams to defer payments to a much later year.
The MLB doesnât need a salary cap or salary floor⌠they need to ban deferred salaries. Ohtani making $2M a year is insane, Snell deferring money on this deal, only small market teams should be allowed to defer money, itâs the only way to balance Dodgers just buying titles
— Goldschmidt Happened (@GoldyHappens) November 27, 2024
Contract deferrals are much more damaging to MLB than lack of salary cap. Think MLB needs to figure that out soon
— Ed Harper (@Edward_Harper4) November 27, 2024
Ohtani made headlines last season when he signed with the Dodgers for a record-breaking $700 million. But much of Ohtani’s money was deferred a full decade into the future, giving his team more flexibility to make other moves around the two-way star. That flexibility may have very well been what allowed the Dodgers to sign Snell.
