Kansas City Royals All-Star Whit Merrifield says owners ‘cry poor’ then use loophole
Kansas City Royals two-time All-Star second baseman Whit Merrifield, one of the team’s leaders on the field and the team’s union representative, pushed back strongly and publicly — in a local radio appearance on Thursday — against the idea of Major League Baseball’s small-market clubs struggling financially.
Merrifield said that small-market teams “cry poor” in an interview on the “Cody and Gold” show on KCSP (610 AM).
The MLB owners locked out the players in early December after the most recent collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association expired.
The owners initiated the first work stoppage in the majors since the players went on strike during the 1994 season. Transactions have been temporarily frozen, including trades and signing free agents to major-league contracts. (Minor-league deals are allowed.)
Merrifield, who made his major-league debut in 2016, expressed frustration about there having been no significant discussion since the lockout began. The Royals player representative characterized efforts thus far as “one-sided.”
Asked a question about tanking, smaller-market franchises and potential ways to even the playing field and create more competitive balance, Merrifield said, “You’ve got to incentivize teams to win and punish teams to lose, and then a lot of this stuff will take care of itself.”
Merrifield then went on to speak about the perceived plight of smaller-market clubs in general.
While the Royals are a smaller-market team, he gave no indication that his comments weren’t directed specifically at the Royals. In the past, he has publicly praised the Royals’ approach and willingness to compete.
“Smaller-market teams cry poor,” Merrifield said. “They’re not poor. They’re not poor like they’re saying, and they’ve just found a loophole to where they’re going to make their money regardless of wins and losses — teams have come to realize [that].
“And so what they’re saying is, ‘We’re a small-market team. We can’t afford a high payroll.’ So they’re cutting as much payroll as they can because they know they’re going to revenue X amount of money regardless of wins and losses. So if they can have a smaller payroll, they’re going to make more money. We got to find a way to counterbalance that and to incentivize teams to win. Frankly, there’s too many businessmen and not enough baseball men that own teams at this point.”
The Royals were the 28th most valuable franchise in MLB according to the latest Forbes “Business of Baseball” rankings. According to Forbes’ data, the Royals ranked 23rd in the latest annual revenue figures ($109 million).
The Royals total payroll for 2021, according to the website Spotrac, ranked 23rd in the majors ($86,565,788). The Los Angeles Dodgers led all teams ($271,200,832), while the Baltimore Orioles ($42,421,870) had the lowest payroll. The Royals ranked 26th in 2020 and 23rd in 2019 according to the site.
In 2021, MLB began the season with fans in attendance at a reduced capacity in most cases and increased capacity in accordance with changing local health and safety guidelines.
Games were played in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season without fans in the stadiums, with the exception of NLCS and World Series games in Arlington, Texas. There have been varying accounts about the impact of revenue losses on MLB franchises in 2020.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:08 PM.
