Does `argued` mean agree or disagree?

Question

The book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by By Michael Lewis" says

The raw disparities meant that only the rich teams could afford the best players. A poor team could afford only the maimed and the inept, and was almost certain to fail. Or so argued the people who ran baseball.

Does argued here mean agree or disagree?

Answer 1

To “argue with somebody” means to disagree.

To “argue for something”, or “argue something” means to advocate for it or to fight for it.

In this case,

So argued Alice.

means

Alice made this argument.

or

Alice argued for this.

“So” or “this” refers to the opinion expressed by the previous sentence.

In other words, starting the sentence with “or so argued…“ means the author admits the previous sentence might possibly not be 100% true, but there were people who believed it was true, and said so.