MLB counts benefits and 40-man salaries and this year that added about $18 million per team. We also know that the Phillies through reporting are only slightly under the $210 million this year, so clearly that estimate of $183 million is at least $23 million too low.
MLB also proposed a 25% tax at $180 million. It starts at 20% at $210 million now.
This is a really bad deal for the players and certainly a step back from where there are today when revenues the past decade have grown much quicker than salaries. I know MLB teams spend more in other areas like analytics, but I have a tough time justifying an extra $20 million a team spending on analytics if it comes out of player salaries.
The cheap teams DO need to spend to a floor. That can happen though when coupled with the right revenue sharing formulas. You could also design a real revenue sharing system with players due a certain percentage of revenues. But not this. This is just a larger tax designed to repress salaries even more than the current system.
