We’ve got ourselves a showdown brewing in the MLB — and it’s not on the diamond.
Manfred’s Quiet MLB Campaign: A Salary Cap Sales Tour
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is making a not-so-quiet push for a salary cap, and he’s going straight to the players. That’s right, according to union officials, Manfred is sidestepping the MLB Players Association and knocking on clubhouse doors to make his case directly, and players are raising their eyebrows hard.
Bruce Meyer, the MLBPA’s deputy director, told Foul Territory that this is nothing new. He says ownership’s been chasing a salary cap for half a century and that this latest campaign is just a dressed-up rerun of past tactics — divide and conquer. Sound familiar? That’s because we’ve seen this movie before: the 1994-95 strike, the canceled World Series, the replacement players, and then, after all the dust settled, no salary cap. Since then, the two sides have managed to hold it together through five labor deals — the latest signed in 2022 and running through late 2026.
Big-Market Muscle vs. Small-Market Squeeze
But the clock’s ticking, and the old arguments are heating up again.
See, MLB is the only major U.S. sports league without a salary cap. The NFL and NHL have hard caps; the NBA operates under a soft cap, but baseball? It’s still the Wild West. And with teams like the Dodgers dropping $408 million on payroll — including a $700 million deal for Shohei Ohtani — fans in smaller markets are starting to wonder if they’re watching the big boys play on repeat.
Manfred gets it — kind of. He has acknowledged that competitive balance is a legitimate concern, especially when the same big-market teams consistently win. But he hasn’t come out and demanded a cap yet. He’s just floating it. Suggesting. Nudging. (Repeatedly. For three years now.)
But players? They’re not buying the “this-is-good-for-you” sales pitch.
As Meyer put it, if this system’s so great for the players, why do the owners want it so badly? Why have other leagues locked players out over it? It doesn’t take a financial analyst to figure out that the folks pushing for a cap are usually the ones trying to spend less, not more.
Players Want a Floor, Owners Want Control
Here’s where it gets exciting: while the league focuses on reining in payrolls, players are still pushing for a salary floor to force teams like the Pirates actually to spend money. But a floor without a cap? That’s a non-starter for owners.
And yet, despite the tension, Meyer doesn’t think we’re headed for another shutdown. “Reasonable people on both sides,” he says. Plus, the league made a record-breaking $12.1 billion in revenue last year — so yeah, shutting things down? Not exactly good business.
Bottom line? We’ve got billionaires, millionaires, and a ticking clock — and once again, baseball’s economic tug-of-war is sliding into scoring position.
