The game needs not only more motivated owners, but also more forward thinkers. With any luck, the Nationals and Angels, both currently for sale, will be bought by like-minded individuals or groups, and the turnover will continue with the Reds, A’s and Pirates, to name three clubs that need a change.Īctually, I could list a whole bunch more. Middleton became a 48 percent shareholder in the Phillies in 2014 and their control person in 2016. Seidler became the Padres’ control person not long after that. This is a new breed of owner, operating under a new collective-bargaining agreement that reflects the union’s success in raising the luxury-tax thresholds and staving off harsher penalties. Middleton and Seidler share his obsession, which is exactly what fans should want. But in an industry mostly content with profits, Cohen is obsessed with winning. Not likely, obviously - Cohen is one of a kind, the 38th richest man in America according to Forbes, with a real-time net worth of $17.5 billion. Seriously, would anyone be surprised, considering their respective ages and injury histories, if Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Brandon Nimmo all fell into various states of disrepair next season, and the Mets sputtered around them?ĭon’t get me wrong: I wish there were 30 Cohens, one for each franchise. Yet, even the disenchanted can take comfort in one of the sport’s enduring realities: The big-money flexes generate shock-and-awe buzz, but guarantee nothing.

Some fans of small-market teams are even more exasperated than before.

Some executives and owners are privately grumbling about the sport’s latest economic eruption.

Bad for the sport? Depends who you root for.

Lords of the realm john helyar