The World Series begins tonight between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers. These are two teams that could not be more different. Los Angeles has the highest payroll in baseball and some of the most notable stars in the game on their team. Players such as Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger, Clayton Kershaw, and many others. Tampa is a small-market, analytically driven baseball team with very few stars. Tyler Glasnow might be their only one, but even him, I don’t think a casual fan could pick him out of a lineup. Some feel that if Tampa wins this could change baseball moving forward. Why that seems unrealistic after things return to normal.

The thought is that if Tampa takes down Los Angeles, many teams will think they can do that. Sports breeds copycats. No matter what the sport is. We always have copycats. Just because the Rays did it, does not mean that countless other teams can follow the same model. Can teams investigate certain parts of Tampa and try to replicate that with their own team? Sure. Look at their defensive numbers along with their pitchers that all throw gas. Despite that, I don’t think you’re going to see 29 other teams going with the Rays’ model.

What’s weird is that it might seem that way next season. Given some of the comments about the poor short-term financial shape of the NBA, the MLB is likely in the same boat. If that’s the case, there will not be spending this offseason. Milwaukee Brewers could end up signing George Springer or Trevor Bauer only because there is no money to spend for the major market teams. But if there is a normal 2021 season, are we sure things would stay this way or revert to what we saw the last year?

Remember, there were major contracts handed out by a variety of teams. After the lack of spending the years prior, last winter saw Mike Moustakas get 64M and Yasmani Grandal get 70M. The team that had them in 2019, the Milwaukee Brewers, couldn’t compete with those numbers. Why did that happen? Teams wanted to open up their pocketbooks to get winners. Cincinnati is a small-market team that tried a big-market approach. That will always happen. A team that sees its window and want to push all-in so they overpay for talent. You cannot tell me otherwise.

The last 18 of 20 World Series winners have all had massive payrolls. There are always anomalies like the Kansas City Royals or Tampa Bay. It’s hard to see baseball making those more common.

Charlie.