MLB payrolls: You need some dollars and some sense

We've had a lot of payroll talk on this blog this weekend. In this entry yesterday, we took a look at some of the Orioles' payroll obligations for 2017. Today, let's take a look at how big spending in baseball doesn't always get the job done.

The 2015 World Series was played between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets. The Royals began that season with the 17th highest payroll in the majors and the Mets ranked 19th.

The 2016 World Series was played between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. The Cubs began the year No. 6 in payroll, with Cleveland at No. 23.

Two years ago of the top 10 payrolls in the sport just four made the playoffs. In 2016, six of the top 10 payroll teams made the postseason.

Baseball has been a sport producing solid competitive balance for many seasons now. We can go back to the 2008 season when the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League East taking down not one, but two big spending teams in New York and Boston.

We now are at a time in baseball when the Royals can win the World Series, as they did in 2015. A time when the Pittsburgh Pirates can make the postseason three straight years, as they did from 2013-15. A time when the Cleveland Indians went to Game 7 of the World Series. A time when the Orioles are still outspent by the Red Sox and Yankees but have more wins than both since 2012.

Yet teams keep handing out big contracts. It seems we are now seeing a team sign a player to a big contract one year and then try to get out of it a year later.

That could be happening now with Arizona right-handed pitcher Zach Greinke. Last Dec. 9, he surprised a lot of people when he signed a six-year free agent deal with Arizona for $206.5 million. He is due $34 million in 2017, a year after he went 13-7 with an ERA of 4.37.

Arizona has a new general manager in Mike Hazen, and ESPN's Buster Olney recently wrote that Hazen should try to deal Greinke to create payroll flexibility. Greinke will eat up about $34 million of a projected $100 million payroll this year. And you thought the Chris Davis deal was an issue for the O's payroll? It makes you wonder why teams make these moves only to turn around and look to get out of them not long after. Do they ever learn?

A year after a winter where the Detroit Tigers spent a combined $242.75 million on free agents Justin Upton and Jordan Zimmermann the team is now strongly considering scaling back its payroll. The Tigers payroll was $198.6 million last year.

Tigers general manager Al Avila recently told reporters: "We want to run the organization without having to go over our means. We want to stay competitive, but at the same time, this organization has been working way above its means for some time."

Remember when some fans praised owner Mike Ilitch for spending big. "They really want to win in Detroit," some said. Now they are changing how they operate just a year after signing Upton to a six-year deal for $132.75 million and Zimmermann to a five-year deal worth $110 million.

Next year for the Tigers Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera will be paid $28 million, Upton $22.125 million, Zimmermann and Victor Martinez $18 million, and Anibal Sanchez $16.8 million. You can understand Avila's comments when you consider those salaries for those players in 2017.

When a team like the Tigers, a big spender for years, is cutting back you may ask this question: Has the major leagues reached a point where having big ideas and big imagination overcomes big dollars?