Major League Baseball’s labor fight is tightening around one issue that has defined every serious conversation between the league and the union: a salary cap.
The owners and the MLB Players Association are deep in collective bargaining talks, and with the end of the year approaching, the threat of a lockout is hanging over the sport. The two sides are far apart, and the central divide remains whether the next CBA should include a cap on player salaries.
Owners see it as a way to improve competitive balance. Players see it as a direct hit to their earning power.
Commissioner Rob Manfred didn’t use the phrase “salary cap” in his latest comments, but he made clear where ownership stands. Speaking to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, Manfred said the current ownership group is as aligned as any he has seen in baseball.
“I do know this: I think that I have an ownership group that is more united than any group in my entire time in baseball,” said Manfred, who started working with MLB as outside counsel in the late 1980s. “I think they are a group that believes in what I have been arguing for, and that is listening to our fans, trying to make changes to produce the best possible game that we can produce.”
This is familiar territory for MLB. The league tried to push a salary cap in 1994, and the result was a 232-day strike that wiped out the World Series.
On the union side, the opposition is just as firm. Dodgers union representative Will Smith said the team would vote against any CBA proposal that includes a salary cap, and MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer feels the same way.
With the current agreement set to expire on Dec. 1, a lockout looks inevitable. The real question after that is whether the sport will lose games in the 2027 season.
After the 2026 All-Star Game wrapped up, the league and the union are expected to get back to the table soon. The MLBPA’s latest proposal, sent to MLB earlier this month, included a package of changes the union says would improve the game, protect player health and safety, and strengthen free agency.
Among the items in that offer were temporary roster expansions, changes to the 60-day injured list, in-season optional assignments, continuation of a Rule 5 Draft, MLB service time and salary protections, and player access to all data and video that clubs use.
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