Because they can afford it. They can afford to shop at the top of the FA pitching market, knowing full well Proce will be dead money in a few years. They can afford to take chance that Panda wouldn't get even fatter. They could afford to take a chance on Hanley in LF. They knew Ortiz would be gone soon an open up the DH slot.
They have refused to deal their young core positional talent. Their shift happened long ago with Theo, who was then poached by the Cubs. Then they bring in a more old school guy who signed those bad deals, even though they can certainly afford to take those risks.
The large market teams can now do everything the small market teams used to do to gain an advantage, and then supersize it with unlimited money. They can take risks on FAs in addition to properly valuing players. It's precisely why parity in baseball has been eroding the last few years.
Parity in baseball eroding?
I don't see that, at least not yet.
Lot's of people around here bow and grovel to the success of the Royals and they have certainly taken advantage of their chances but they're not an exception to lack of parity.
You also have the Pirates who have been extremely competitive but have likely valued their prospects too much because they have been unwilling to part with players for the NOW opportunity (no way to know if it would have made a difference).
The Cards certainly aren't a true large market team and neither are the Cubs historically in terms of spending.
The Rays had a shot. The Marlins have a shot this year. Even the Giants aren't really huge payroll spenders but aren't afraid of targeted spending.
It seems to me that in recent years the teams who have been traditional big spenders have either fallen short of the playoffs (Red Sox, Yanks, Angels in past years) or have fallen short of winning anything Dodgers, Rangers, Mets.
It is TRUE that the A's have mostly struggled since the book except for that three year run where they had Donaldson, right before Billy trading him away for a handful of magic beans.
IDK, it seems to me that the smartest teams are still doing well, even in the face of a lot of money being spent.
Outside of having all the money you want or need, teams that are doing well now committed to a true rebuild, went through some multiyear pain for long term gain, tanked if they had to, then played hard, fast and well with the draft, international signings and key trades.
The Cubs aren't the Cubs of today without Bryant, Rizzo, Arrieta, Baez, Contreras, Soler, Russell, Strop, Rondon. Their FA signings have been fairly mediocre, for every Lester they have a Heyward.
Houston was reviled for "tanking" and now look where they are, competing and set up for long term success.
The Rangers built themselves on the backs of trades (partly unfortunately with the Braves), the draft and international signings.
The Blue Jays have a lot of cast offs that they turned into gold as far as bats and have developed some good pitching.
The Orioles are mostly home grown.
