Owners claim they need salary cap to give 'hope' to small-market teams; union cries foul
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, left, and union chief Bruce Meyer. Credit: AP
PHILADELPHIA — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and union chief Bruce Meyer spoke at length Tuesday about each owning the public’s support for their diametrically opposite views regarding a salary cap.
But only Manfred was asked about having the approval of baseball’s First Fan — President Donald Trump, who already is on the record saying that the sport needs the payroll-restraining mechanism going forward. When the question was pitched Tuesday, during the annual All-Star break BBWAA meeting, Manfred initially reacted as if he were ducking a 100-mph fastball, then composed himself for a response.
“I think it would be wildly inappropriate for me to speculate about what the President of the United States might do or not do in a hypothetical situation,” Manfred said. “We know this: He’s a great sports fan and he’s really knowledgeable about the business of sports, so it doesn’t surprise me he’s interested.”
Something to keep an eye on in the future. One, Trump tends to get involved in high-profile confrontations, and what greater spotlight than being able to put his finger on the scales of this MLB-union showdown, with the national pastime hanging in the balance? Two, the negotiations for this expiring collective bargaining agreement, which is up on Dec. 1, already have become so contentious that baseball may need some sort of outside intervention to get back on the field for the 2027 season.
In what has become too typical for this sport, the backdrop for Tuesday morning’s war of words was the All-Star Game, an event meant to celebrate the best in baseball while having the stage all to itself. Both Manfred and Meyer mostly agreed that the business is doing well, with upticks in attendance and TV ratings. Monday night’s Home Run Derby, which was broadcast on the streaming service Netflix for the first time, had success with an entertaining new format that wrapped with a dramatic finish: The Cardinals’ Jordan Walker edging hometown hero Kyle Schwarber by going deep on his final swing.
The Everest-sized obstacle that threatens the 2027 season, however, remains the salary cap, something that’s been baseball’s third-rail subject for nearly a half-century — and even wiped out the World Series in 1994. Both sides have expressed a willingness to go with the nuclear option to get their way — sacrificing part or all of next season — despite conceding how much the sport has flourished in recent years.
“I believe those [salary cap] systems are really, really bad for players — now and in the future,” Meyer said. “The history of those systems, every one of them has gotten worse. Once the players get into it, they never get out of it. The owners will lock them out repeatedly until they get the players’ [revenue] share further down.”
As for why MLB has not gone the way of the NFL, NBA and NHL in imposing a salary cap, Meyer pointed to the power of his Players Association.
“The answer is very simple — it’s because our union has been the strongest,” Meyer said. “That’s why we like to think that we’re the gold standard and I believe that’s recognized as such in the industry.”
Manfred maintains that baseball needs the salary-cap system for the sake of competitive balance, which apparently wasn’t achieved to the owners’ satisfaction by increasing the luxury tax thresholds five years ago. The commissioner said the gap between the highest spending team (Dodgers) and the lowest (Marlins) is $441 million, by his analysis, and that disparity is not sustainable going forward.
“It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that gap has the same opportunity to win as the top,” Manfred said. “The data in our sport is stark. Your opportunity to make the playoffs, if you are a larger-market team, is dramatically higher and your opportunity to proceed to the subsequent rounds, that advantage grows with each round.
“I do believe that a big piece of this issue is the perception, and it’s why I use the word hope that exists at the beginning of the year. When you’re out there selling season tickets, and you’re sitting in a small market, good players are moving someplace else and your team is standing pat . . . That robs people of hope and we need to do something about that.”
Meyer views the salary cap as nothing more than the owners’ desire to cut labor costs. He called Manfred’s claims of the sport being broken “perverse” and a few teams this season have provided solid talking points for the union’s argument. The tiny-market Rays boast the third-lowest payroll ($108M) but also the best record in the American League (56-38). The Brewers, who rank 19th in spending ($145M), have the second-most wins (59-37) in the sport.
“The owners — many of them — want a system that not only guarantees their profits, not only increases their franchise values, but essentially is a form of subsidized mediocrity,” Meyer said. “The salary cap is the ultimate excuse not to compete.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
More MLB news
