MLB's Small-Market Contenders Deserve Celebration, Not Complaints

Brace yourself for the international tears that could hit your social media timelines in the next few weeks.

The Cleveland Guardians are two games away from the World Series. The Milwaukee Brewers just need one more win in four more tries to prevent the Los Angeles Dodgers from reaching another World Series, putting an end to their three-peat dreams.

If this happens, the argument will be made that small market baseball is alive and well. Already, Miami Dolphins reporter Joe Schad is on social media whining about television market sizes and inconvenient timing for owners ahead of baseball’s lockout at the end of the season.

Boo hoo.

Schad could wipe away the tears of billionaire baseball owners while the rest of us enjoy a tremendously cool story in sports unfolding.

The Brewers have been on the doorstep of this for what feels like a generation. Superstar slugger Christian Yelich is in his eighth postseason, and he’s one win away from taking down the big, bad Dodgers. The Guardians, who won the American League Central division in the final few games of the regular season, are two wins away from beating the Tampa Bay Rays, the team that won the hardest division in the American League.

According to Spotrac, the Guardians have the lowest payroll in baseball.

The Guardians have the longest World Series drought in baseball, last celebrating a baseball championship in Cleveland in 1948. Milwaukee doesn't go back quite as long with their drought, but 1982 wasn’t exactly just a few seasons ago.

The Rays won a World Series in 2020, but they’re one of the cheapest teams in baseball, ranked 28th on Spotrac.

Everyone is freaking out about whether small market teams in the World Series will interfere with the lockout – it really won’t. Over the last several years, baseball’s competitive balance issue has been on full display and one postseason won’t change the landscape of the looming lockout. If anything, the scrappy underdog will be used as a true David vs. Goliath comparison, and playing fields being level for all organizations would hopefully result in an even more entertaining product.

So there’s no reason to whine and moan about television market sizes or payrolls right now. Instead, marvel in some of the most underrated superstars in the sport. Jacob Misiorowski is must-see television every time he’s on the mound. Jose Ramirez is enjoying the best postseason of his legendary Cleveland baseball career.

Just enjoy some high level baseball being played by teams making the most of what they have, looking to put an end to very long championship droughts.