MLB's proposed salary floor could give Rangers' ownership another excuse to spend less

Baseball is likely about to get worse for the Texas Rangers before it gets better so why not throw the impending lockout and potential changes in the implementation of a salary cap and floor to provide ownership a bit more free reign.

As reported on Thursday, Major League Baseball proposed the first of its salary restrictions to the Major League Baseball Players Association which includes a hard floor of $171.2 million and cap of $245.3 million as part of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.

There's been a lot of debate over the years as teams have either been accused of spending way too little money and blaming their failures on teams like the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers for making it hard to be competitive with their respective payrolls north of $300 million.

However, this proposal peaks Rangers' fans interest for a completely different reason.

Rangers recent track record of cutting payroll could get worse with salary floor

While six teams would have to worry about lowering their payrolls and nearly half the league will have to increase theirs, the Rangers are in a grey area alongside nine other organizations. The ones with room to play if they were willing to add or subtract.

At $185.9 million this season, the Rangers have the 14th-highest payroll in the league. A far cry from their 2023 World Series year where they spent a little more than $250 million and were the fourth-highest in MLB.

That is due to direct orders from Rangers' owner Ray Davis to cut the payroll over the past few seasons to keep from overflowing the luxury tax and paying penalties. He directed the front office this past offseason to cut it below $200 million, which was a big reason for cutting Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim's salaries from the book.

Before talking further about this, it's important to acknowledge that the current numbers under MLB's proposal will not be the final. Pretty much a guarantee the player's union has something to say about it and it will likely lead to some sort of lockout in December.

Regardless of the number, Davis might see this as an chance to lower the team's payroll even more and keep this team on the struggle bus even longer.

Salary restrictions might eliminate luxury tax, along with it Davis's number one gripe

There is a possibility that with an implementation of a floor and cap across the league, it will get rid of the luxury tax, which solely exists for teams that go over the set number. A cap would essentially stop teams from going over the set number, effectively eliminating the tax.

Davis has the money, as do all other 29 owners to pay players and make the competition more balanced. Let's say they agree to a cap of $300 million with no tax, he might feel more inclined to inch closer to that cap without fear of having to pay any additional money the following season.

The Rangers spent nearly $12.5 million in penalties for 2023 and 2024 and would have paid even more if they past the mark again last year for the third straight season. Not wanting to have to pay any penalty at all is what caused Davis to backtrack his spending after winning the title.

If that was gone, he could go back to spending more money or he could say he doesn't care and continue selling this team down a river. The latter though wouldn't be too popular among an already frustrated fanbase.

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