During the contentious Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation, one key point was the implementation of the Steve Cohen Tax. In essence, a fourth tier to the tax was created with minimal movement on the threshold. For some reason, the players accepted the offer.

That was already proven to be catastrophic. That goes double with all the increased revenue MLB will receive as a result of the expansion of the postseason and exclusive deals struck for streaming games. In essence, there’s a lot more money in baseball, no real movement on the CBT thresholds, and no real motivation for teams to spend.

We’re already seeing the fallout of the new CBA.

The Oakland Athletics were in the postseason race last year and would have a better path to the postseason this year. They were in the postseason in 2018 – 2020. Despite that success, they’re tearing it all down. Bob Melvin will now manage the San Diego Padres. Chris Bassitt was traded to the New York Mets. Matt Olson was traded to the Atlanta Braves. Matt Chapman was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. There are more moves on the horizon.

If you think that is bad, look at what the Cincinnati Reds are doing. While the Athletics got big returns in their trades which should help them turnover their roster and return to contention at some point, it’s like the Reds aren’t even trying. They’re just dumping salary, and they appear to be looking to move more money.

Already, the Reds traded Sonny Gray to the Minnesota Twins. They traded Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez to the Seattle Mariners. We may soon see the impossible with the Reds looking to trade Joey Votto. For his part, Votto is disappointed not just in that prospect, but also in the fact this Reds team was in the 2020 postseason and looked to be a move or two away from contention in 2022. They chose the opposite path.

For all those who declared the CBA was a win for fans, they flat out lied. It did nothing to prevent the Athletics and Reds from tearing it down. The Pirates and Marlins will continue to operate with the smallest possible payrolls. We will see other teams fail to go that extra mile. This is all an embarrassment to the game, and MLB fans are owed an apology from MLB.