One might argue that's an ownership incentive problem - there are insufficient incentives for owners to spend enough money to field a competitive baseball team.

One might argue that's an ownership incentive problem - there are insufficient incentives for owners to spend enough money to field a competitive baseball team. A bunch of owners are more or less explicitly in it for the guaranteed profit that comes with cheaply fielding uncompetitive teams. (It's notable that teams in capped leagues also do this, most noticeably in the NHL. So the salary cap doesn't solve this problem so much as it redirects revenue from players to owners.)