Does a "lack of PEDs" help the competitive balance? For most players, the drafting team can control them until they turn 28-30 or so. With PEDs, those players were just peaking and were competitive to their late 30s, even to 40. Barry Bonds at 41? Not a problem. Mark McGwire at 37? Crushing it. Now, without PEDs, we are looking at the peak around the 27 age. So people signing these big, long term contracts are in the drop-off point of their careers. Certainly, having deep pockets still helps. The Red Sox will certainly be better with Price next year. But its not the advantage isn't nearly as long, nor as high as it used to be. Ok, that was a very small sliver of a silver lining to a dark cloud, but still.