Something very odd is happening in Major League Baseball. At the same time payroll inequality is reaching levels not seen in more than a decade and barreling toward the imbalance of the mid-2000s, fewer teams are outright punting on their seasons than in recent years. Whether it's because of talent, spending or a subpar division, 26 of baseball's 30 teams enter Opening Day with genuine playoff aspirations.
The two ideas -- massive spending gaps and nearly 90% of the sport eyeing October -- make for strange bedfellows. And yet there's a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon, one that general managers around the game point to when queried about the incongruence: the new collective bargaining agreement.