Get rid of the DH.
Most sports outside the US have some form of relegation. If you finish at the bottom of a league you drop down a level the next season and the top teams from the lower division get promoted up one level.
It probably wouldn’t work with the way that most sports leagues are structured in the US but it certainly prevents tanking.
Major League Baseball doesn't offer that option.
If you stop revenue sharing tanking would come to an abrupt end. Today a team can finish 52-110 and still making millions for its owners. Yes 4-6 teams would probably fold but it would make for a better product overall.
Are there too many teams?
The only way to end tanking in baseball is to fire a bunch of owners. There’s just way too many in the sport that don’t care what they put on the field, so long as it makes money.
What if teams were required to provide bonuses to players based on their personal performance and the performance of the team as a whole? The owners might try to lose by dumping great players but the players that remain will be incentified to play their best.
Why should the players care? MLBPA? Oh, you mean the VETERAN players. The ones left holding the bag while the farm system delivers the NEW players.
Frankly, if the fans put up with it why shouldn’t the players?
Texas Rangers have been doing something like that for several years — trading away good players.
This year, they supposedly have spent $1/2 Billion during the off season to get spectacular players.
It is working great — they are at 1 and 4 on the new season.
It's a rebuilding year decade century
In Cincinnati many fans were in revolt. Opening day Joe Burrow and Zak Taylor had more reaction with chants of Who-Dey than the Reds did. Sorry state when you lose the home openers to the Cleveland Pronouns.
There have been a few low payroll teams that were contenders for long stretches of years, but it’s rare. Your draft picks have to develop into good major league players - and prospect development in baseball is far more variable than the other sports. All it takes is for a few high draft picks to bust or get hurt to create a void in talent. Higher revenue teams have an option when that happens - sign free agents. Teams like Pittsburgh and Oakland can’t do that.
The tanking strategy is painful, but it’s better to watch the team lose 100 games for a few years while they rebuild the system than to watch them lose 90 games every year and just stay mediocre. I’m a Pirates fan - I’ve seen it both ways. There’s hope now in Pittsburgh because tanking brough them a wealth of talent that should sustain a competitive team for years if all goes right.
The solution is simple: a salary floor of $75 million and a salary cap three times that at $225 million. No more “cheap” owners.