Two different answers to this:I think the small market teams oppose raising the CBT not because it will force them to spend up to it but because allowing big-market teams to spend more will raise salaries for everyone. So Pittsburgh and Baltimore and Miami ownership *will* be forced to spend additional money.
1) On who? Those teams virtually never sign FAs, so maybe you mean that it will push up the salaries of pre-FA stars in arbitration, but I am not sure that is accurate.
2) Um, good? Those three teams combined right now have total salaries of $119M for 2022, less than $40M on average for the three of them. That is absolutely absurd, sell the fucking team if you don't want to pay anyone anything.
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/