The Dodger’s this past season had a total Salary cost of $350 million, with five players making over $20 million. The luxury tax is supposed to stop stuff like this, but when you can afford to pay every superstar you want, the “penalties” basically don’t matter. Even the 50% tax only kicks in after three straight years over the line, and most of the teams that qualify can still easily cover it because they bring in so much money anyway.

You can see this across the league. The Mets went way over the tax the past two years, and even when it didn’t work they had to blow up their roster, they still didn’t care about the money lost. The Yankees have been over the tax multiple times and act like it’s just another yearly expense. Meanwhile, look at teams like the Rays or Guardians, both are consistently competitive, but they can’t even think about making the kinds of offers these big markets throw around without hesitation. The gap just keeps getting bigger.

And the draft pick punishment? Moving your first pick back ten spots doesn’t mean anything to a team that’s already winning and already loaded with talent. If you’re a contender, you’re not stressing over draft prospects, you’re focused on the postseason.

That’s the actual problem: MLB’s system barely affects the teams it’s suppose to control. Owners who are fine dumping money into their roster just keep spending, which drives up prices across the league. Meanwhile, teams with owners who don’t want to spend, or literally can’t spend at that level, fall behind. They can’t keep their best players, they can’t compete for free agents, and they don’t win many games.

The luxury tax was meant to keep things balanced but right now it’s doing the opposite. Until MLB does something to actually slow down the big spenders, small-market teams are going to keep getting pushed out of the picture.