The Pitfalls of Deep Pockets

The Major League Baseball regular season is wrapping up — and whether we’re die-hard fans or know nothing about America’s pastime, a quick glance at the top of the standings offers an important leadership lesson.

The New York Mets, New York Yankees and San Diego Padres had the three highest payrolls in the sport heading into this year — totaling well over $800 million in contracts — but will not make the playoffs.

Conversely, Tampa Bay and Baltimore, two of the top three teams in the standings, ranked 28th and 29th in payroll, respectively.

Why does this matter?

We often like to believe high budgets will allow us to bring in top talent who will elevate our teams and lift our organizations.

We reason that an increase in resources means more freedom to splurge, to acquire, to shoot for the stars.

But if the current MLB standings are any indication, success is hardly about pouring dollars into our problems and thinking this alone will fix our issues.

Extensive means can just as easily lead to:

•Complacency
•Increased pressure and expectation
•Pieces failing to gel
•Irrational decisions
•Ego driving us to make purchases that don’t actually fit our larger plan

In a scathing piece on the Padres in The Athletic last week, one former clubhouse staffer described the team’s clubhouse as “the most toxic.”

The point is that there are often unintended consequences to having deep pockets and starting at the top.

By the same measure, there can be hidden benefits to being the scrappy underdog with unheralded parts and fewer expectations.

Regardless of where our budget ranks compared to our competitors, we need to make sure we don’t look at our dollar figure as the final story.

Money and big names alone won’t fix our problems or challenges.

In some cases, they only exacerbate them.