The average salary likely will drop slightly for only the third time in 20 years, the first since 2004, and many teams are fretting over ticket sales.
"People aren't going out and spending their money right now," said Johnny Damon, an All-Star used to playing in front of full houses at Yankee Stadium. "They've got to think, well,
'Should we watch it on TV or should we go?' A lot of people are going, probably, to watch more games on TV."
But which teams will they be watching?
Last year's World Series teams, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, must prove they have staying power, and the Yankees have gambled
- again! - on pricey free agents.
The Phillies no doubt will have many full houses, starting when they host Atlanta in the major league opener April 5 and hoist a pennant celebrating their first World Series title since 1980, just their second overall.
"I'd like to add to that trophy," manager Charlie Manuel said. "It would be nice to have a couple sitting beside it."
It won't be so easy.
No team has repeated since the Yankees from 1998-2000 or even reached the World Series in consecutive years since the Yankees in 2001.
But hope is the buzz word for this time of year.
That's why the Dodgers gave Manny Ramirez a $45 million, two-year deal, convincing the perplexing power hitter to linger in Los Angeles and help the team try to win its first title since 1988.
"He's the L.A. Dodgers' stimulus package," his agent, Scott Boras, said.
The only player who makes more than Ramirez this season, Alex Rodriguez, will be missing opening day
- and when New York moves into baseball's Versailles, a $1.5 billion new Yankee Stadium that hosts its first regular-season opener April 16.
It might be a relief for A-Rod to be out of the picture, if only for a moment.
Following a tumultuous offseason in which he admitting using steroids from 2001-03 while playing for Texas, the three-time AL MVP needed surgery to repair a hip injury and will be sidelined until May. He'll collect $174,863 a day from his $32 million salary while he heals.
If those numbers seem boggling, try a few more from Yankees world.
Fans will pay up to $2,625 for the top seats at the new stadium to watch a team that spent $423.5 million to add pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, and first baseman Mark Teixeira.
Across New York City, the Mets capped prices at a relatively reasonable average of $495 for the best seats at $800 million Citi Field, which opens April 13.
Contrast that with the rest of the majors, where overall two-thirds of teams froze or lowered either some levels of tickets or their average price, according to MLB spokesman Matt Bourne.
That had an impact when teams decided which free agents to pursue.
"Gas is up and so am I," Manny Ramirez said last October.
Auto fuel actually was down to $1.78 a gallon by then, and had slipped some more by early March, when he accepted a heavily deferred deal from the Dodgers.
"If the economy had been strong, a number of other teams would have been more active in the free-agent market. There would have been more competition," Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said.
Houston even pulled its $27 million, three-year offer to pitcher Randy Wolf, who wound up accepting a $5 million, one-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers that allows him to earn $3 million more in bonuses.
"Look at the way the country's been," he told California high school students. "Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs. That's why I'm lucky to play baseball for the Dodgers."
Thirteen teams cut payroll led by San Diego, which sliced more than $30 million, and the Chicago White Sox, who chopped more then $25 million.
