On a recent episode of the “New Heights” podcast, which he hosts with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce, the elder Kelce criticized the state of baseball, which just crowned the Los Angeles Dodgers repeat World Series champions.
The Super Bowl 52 winner lamented the excessive spending incurred by teams like the Dodgers and others in the MLB, arguing that the regular season is meaningless if the big market clubs are always the ones left standing by the time October rolls around.
Jason Kelce says money can buy MLB championships
Kelce is correct that the Dodgers were widely expected to win the World Series again in 2025 after their 2024 victory. However, the sweeping generalization about money-buying championships is a little more nuanced than that.
For example, last year the New York Mets had the distinction of having MLB’s highest payroll at $322 million. for Spotrac. And while they reached the NLCS in 2024, they didn’t actually win a championship with all that money spent.
The Mets also topped the payroll in 2023 and infamously missed the playoffs. In fact, that year’s champion – the Texas Rangers – ranked fourth on payroll, with $251 million allocated to player salaries. To be clear: that is not a small amount, but it shows that it is not always about spending the most.
It’s true that smaller market teams have historically struggled to win championships. The Tampa Bay Rays, for example, have never won it all. Neither do the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies. Even mid-tier clubs like the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres haven’t captured the ultimate prize.
But to call the regular season meaningless is inaccurate: 162 games really separates the good from the bad, even if the postseason is ultimately more of a crapshoot than a true indicator of potential. In no sport do you earn more than in baseball, even if you have the best players.
So back to Kelce: does he have a point? To some extent, yes. The spending issue will be a focal point in the next MLB collective bargaining agreement. However, the Dodgers’ journey to repeat champions was far from easy, even if it was “expected.”
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