While certain teams have turned the act of not spending on major league payroll into an art -- if you consider losing 114 or 108 or 105 games a form of art -- we can all agree that the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics don't spend due to obvious market limitations. They don't compete on the same financial playing field as the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.
Yet they find ways to win. The Rays followed last year's 90-win campaign with 96 victories and their first playoff berth since 2013. The A's won 97 games for the second straight season and are back in the playoffs.