[crackpott]

A friend of mine mentioned an idea that he read on another message board which I thought sounded kind of interesting.


Instead of the current setup of revenue sharing/luxury tax where owners can pocket the money and the Yankees still sign whoever they want, change the system so that revenue goes into a big pool. If a team loses a player (Say Mauer going to free agency...) the team that loses the player that they developed gets money from the pool to cover a percentage of that player's contract (For the example, I'll use 30%, but it could be whatever number would work.)


So Mauer, as a free agent, has the Yankees throw $20 million a year at him. The Twins could then offer $20 million a year as well, but 30% of that they're not responsible for, and comes out of the league funds. So out of the $20 million, they'd only be responsible for $14 million, a much more reasonable offer, and a way of keeping a player's original team competitive with the big budget teams.


Importantly, it shouldn't anger the union too much as the players will receive the same amount of money (If not more, as owners couldn't pocket that revenue any more), and it gives small market teams a shot to keep a player.


You may want to work out minor things like what happens if the player gets traded, but I think it's a pretty good idea.