My answer would be way radical and probably has a million holes in it. Also, I'm literally making this up as I type it. Have like a $1M base salary for all big leaguers. Every player's pay each season is based on some agreed upon measure of value from the previous season's performance (like some standardized version of WAR with a win valuation scaled based on how much money the league is making). If a team doesn't want to pay full price for the past season's performance, the player is opted into restricted free agency and the open market can determine his value, regardless of how much service time he has. Current team can either agree to pay what another team offered or let him go to that team. I don't really know how you solve the problem that some organizations make way more money than others, though. I hate the idea of a salary cap for a multitude of reasons. Like I said, I'm sure there's a lot wrong with this and a ton I'm not accounting for. And coming up with a statistical measure of performance that everyone could agree on would be a disastrous undertaking, unfortunately. Oh, and pay minor leaguers something reasonable and provide them quality food and housing and all that. This is such a minimal investment that would have no downside for organizations. I just hate how the current system is literally set up to pay crappy old guys the most money for years into their crappy oldness.