MLB rules state that players must give their best to achieve victory. If only the same could be said for those who run the game

Gio Gonzalez isn’t a star, but he’s been a reliable starting pitcher for nearly a decade. The kind MLB teams sign during free agency, because it’s worth diving in early for dependability. At least, it was that way once: Gonzalez recently signed a minor-league deal with the New York Yankees, because it was the only contract offer the 33-year-old received all offseason.

How is it that Gonzalez was still available in mid-March, days before the 2019 season began? For the same reason Mike Moustakas signed one-year deals in consecutive offseasons despite being a dependable, league-average bat, for the same reason mega free agents like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado had to wait by a phone that wasn’t ringing: because not enough MLB teams are trying to win.

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The Cleveland Indians won the AL Central a year ago, entirely on the strength of MLB’s unbalanced schedule that allowed them to rack up wins against a division that was trying even less than they were: Cleveland went 49-27 against the hapless Central teams, and under .500 against both the AL West and AL East. In response, they traded away the still-useful Edwin Encarnacion, and signed one major-league free agent, Oliver Perez, to a $2.5m deal, to fill a bullpen hole. They’ll likely win the AL Central by default, again, rewarding their inaction.

The Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays have both admitted that they have money to spend that they aren’t spending, despite top free agents like Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel still being available. The reigning NL East champion Braves, instead, signed Josh Donaldson to a one-year deal, and then let their payroll drop from 2018 to 2019 despite a jump in revenues and an arms buildup by the division-rival Phillies that saw them bring in all-star catcher JT Realmuto and Harper.

These same Braves, a year ago, manipulated the service time of top prospect Ronald Acuña by holding him in the minors until they had gained another year of team control, even though he was obviously ready for the big leagues – a point proven by his stellar performance when he finally got there. Which brings us back to the Jays, who spent their spring preparing their fans for a similar fate for super prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The 20-year-old has been ready for the majors since last summer, but Toronto have been citing, as teams almost always do in these situations, his defense as the reason to keep him down in the minors longer, when the real reason is squeezing further profit from him.

It might seem a small matter to hold a prospect down in the minors for another few weeks at the start of a season, but those weeks mean they won’t rack up enough days in the majors to count as a full season for service time purposes — so, a team can extend the six seasons of team control they should have into seven, holding players back from free agency – and big money – another year like the Cubs did with Kris Bryant in 2015. Bryant is still not thrilled about this exploitation.

On the other end of the spectrum, Machado only received serious interest from the San Diego Padres and the Chicago White Sox, and the latter wasn’t willing to offer him close to the guaranteed money he required. The Phillies were further off, and the Yankees never seriously engaged. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who last had Machado, were nowhere to be found. Harper was in a similar situation: ignored by the Yankees, with the Dodgers only showing interest when they thought he might settle for a short-term deal to try again later. The Nationals offered $300m, but with $100m in deferrals.

Every team in MLB could afford either of Harper or Machado — even the Pirates, who could have signed Machado while barely surpassing their team record for payroll — and many of them could have afforded both. Yet, we had just a handful of teams attempting to lock up two stars in their mid-20s, with their peak years ahead of them: living counterpoints to the argument against free agency as the realm of aged, former stars, ignored. This, maybe more than anything else, is proof that too much of the league is willing to sit on their hands and hope they get lucky.

Maybe it’s collusion, maybe it’s the economics of a broken system. Former MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth once told league owners they were “damned dumb” for prioritizing winning over making money, and today’s owners seem to agree. Why try when trying costs money? It’s this attitude that has helped MLB’s luxury tax threshold work more like a salary cap, one so effective teams avoid coming within tens of millions of it, as too many of them would rather turn a profit than win the World Series.

Compare this with what’s expected of the players, who must abide by MLB’s Rule 21: players must “give [their] best efforts towards the winning of any baseball game.” Players must try their hardest, but teams and owners do not need to do the same if it gets in the way of profits. How is this, or telling fans to be fine with paying full-price for tickets and concessions and merchandise for teams promising they’ll get around to trying again in three or four or five years, fair?

It isn’t, and both players and fans should expect more. They should demand to see the best possible teams on the field, year in and year out, but today’s MLB isn’t interested in that reality: it’s reflected in league behavior, behavior that will impact both fan interest and the next round of collective bargaining between players and owners. This lack of effort is short-sighted, as are the profits it reaps, and the consequences could have long-term effects on the quality and health of the game.