Haudricourt: With lowest payroll among contenders, Brewers got bang for their bucks

 While trying to run the Milwaukee Brewers on a small-market budget during the turbulent 1990s, general manager Sal Bando had a favorite, astute observation about major-league payrolls.

“Spending money won’t guarantee that you win, but not spending money almost guarantees you won’t,” he said.

All of these years later, that statement mostly remains true, with occasional exceptions in recent seasons such as the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays (although neither broke all the way through to win the World Series). Kansas City earned kudos for winning it all in 2015 with a $113 million payroll, a relatively modest level in this day and age.

Which brings us to the 2017 Brewers. When the season began, they had an actual payroll of less than $60 million, the lowest among the 30 clubs, depending on how you interpreted San Diego’s commitments to players not on their roster.

Right or wrong, pundits often equate spending with chances of competing, so nobody predicted good things for the Brewers, who were entering the second full season of a large-scale rebuilding plan. They had traded every veteran making a big salary with the exception of leftfielder Ryan Braun ($19 million) and right-hander Matt Garza ($12.5 million), who combined make more than half of the Brewers’ total payroll.

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Some players who were in the Brewers' top 10 have since been jettisoned, including reliever Neftali Feliz ($5.35 million), right-hander Wily Peralta ($4.275 million) and lefty Tommy Milone ($1.25 million). Other players were acquired in-season making decent money, such as Neil Walker, Stephen Vogt and Jeremy Jeffress, but the Brewers picked up only portions of their salaries, which hardly busted their budget.

The Brewers began the season with 17 players on their 25-man roster making, in essence, minimum salary, which is $535,000. That’s the way it works when you’re rebuilding and giving young, inexperienced players the chance to prove they should be part of the team’s future.

 With that backdrop, suffice it to say that no major-league club has gotten more bang for its buck this season than the Brewers. They have been in the playoff race all season, though their 5½ game lead in the NL Central at the all-star break has become a three-game deficit.

Look at the two teams with which the Brewers are competing for the division title – Chicago and St. Louis. The deep-pocket Cubs, whose revenue sources make the Brewers’ resources look like a petty cash drawer, began the season with a $172 million payroll, which has increased through second-half additions such as Jose Quintana. The Cardinals had a more modest payroll of $148 million, a nice commitment for that market and still more than twice what the Brewers are spending.

Let’s look at what the other contenders are paying their players. The Los Angeles Dodgers are by far the biggest spenders with a $241 million payroll, and earlier it was good enough to have them on a record pace for victories.  A recent slide nixed that possibility, but they still have the best record in the major leagues.

The Washington Nationals, who have the second-best record in the NL, began the season with a franchise-record $164 million payroll, up from $145 million in 2016. And that was before adding the contracts of Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson and Brandon Kintzler at the trade deadline.

Arizona, by far the hottest team in the NL, is doing it on something of a shoestring budget, compared to other contenders. The Diamondbacks began the season with a $93 million payroll, of which one player, ace right-hander Zack Greinke ($34 million salary), makes more than one-third.

Colorado, trying to hold off the Cardinals and Brewers in the NL wild-card race, began the season with a $128 million payroll, highest in franchise history by some $15 million. And that was before adding reliever Pat Neshek and catcher Jonathan Lucroy before the trade deadline.

Contending in the American League is not for the faint of wallet. Long-time rivals Boston and New York set the pace with payrolls of $197 million and $196 million, respectively. Those two clubs always are at the top in terms of spending for players, leaving others behind in their gold dust.

The big-revenue Los Angeles Angels have never been averse to spending money. They opened this season with a $166 million payroll, highest in club history, and Albert Pujols, Mike Trout and Ricky Nolasco accounted for $58 million, basically what the Brewers are paying their entire team.

Houston and Cleveland, the best teams in the AL, deserve credit for what they’ve done with season-opening $124 million payrolls, far below the league’s big spenders. The Astros did bump their commitment considerably by acquiring Justin Verlander but considered this an all-in year, with the backup of the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.

Minnesota also deserves credit for hanging in the AL wild-card race with a $108 million payroll, lowest among the league’s playoff contenders. The Twins actually sold off pieces before the trade deadline, when things were looking a bit bleak, but used a four-game sweep of the Brewers to get going again.

The game is played on the field, not in the accounting department. But it’s usually more difficult to achieve team success if you’re at the bottom of the financial ladder.

With only partial revenue sharing in baseball, payroll inequality remains the biggest challenge for small-market teams to compete on a regular basis for the postseason. Do you think the Green Bay Packers could compete in their market if the NFL didn't share all revenues? 

So, as the offensively challenged Brewers fight to stay in the playoff races in this final month of the season, let’s not forget what they’ve been up against since Opening Day. It’s difficult to complain about the bang they’ve got for their bucks.