Payroll Madness

The Nationals have a $63 million payroll this year, up from $48 million last year. This might give you the impression that the Nats' days of a depressed payroll are over; after all, the team leapt three places from 23rd to 20th in the rankings and signed Alfonso Soriano in the offseason.

It might give you that impression, I guess, but it shouldn't. The Nationals continue to have a vastly depressed payroll, and a review of two statistics gives us a good (but not perfect) guide to how depressed the payroll is.

The team is in the 8th largest media market and last year was 11th in home attendance. Both figures are rough approximations of what should be the ranking of the team's payroll. If the Nationals had the 8th largest payroll, they would be tied with Houston at $92 million. If the team had the 11th largest payroll, it would be tied with St. Louis at $88 million. There is no obvious reason why the Nationals should have a payroll lower than either Houston or St. Louis; to the contrary, every indication is that the Nationals have the potential to be one of the league's most profitable teams, IF, that is, the team gets an owner and a reasonable television contract.

In other words, it's plausible that the Nationals will have at least $25 million to spend once they get an owner, and that's assuming that the team continues to carry Cristian Guzman and Jose Vidro and their overpriced contracts. If the Nationals can bring some fiscal sanity to the GM's office, they could have over $30 million to spend in the offseason. So, bring on an owner and bring on some real spending!