The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, both of which have known financial troubles, are but two of the nine major-league teams currently violating baseball's debt service rules, the Los Angeles Times reports.
↵↵↵In addition to the Dodgers and Mets, the teams out of compliance are the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals, according to the people, none of whom were authorized to disclose the information.
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The Pirates, you'll notice, aren't there and appear to be living within their means. This problem appears to affect teams of all payroll sizes, not only, or even primarily, the small-payroll ones. That there are nine teams in violation worries one sports investment banker:
↵↵↵"You've got to be thinking, with two of the premier franchises in trouble and a major-market team that has just come out of bankruptcy, what else is out there?" said the banker, who declined to be identified because of his work with the league and its clubs.
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Executives around baseball who are quoted in the article suggest that all this debt isn't a problem, but it's hard to see how it wouldn't be.