Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association held their first official collective bargaining meeting of 2026 in New York City today, per reporting from Jeff Passan of ESPN and Evan Drellich of The Athletic.
At this point, there’s not much in terms of news. Both reporters note that today’s meeting was mostly about the two sides presenting basic overviews of their positions. Formal proposals will come in future meetings. The current collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1st. It’s not unusual to begin talks about this far out. As noted by Drellich, they are actually starting a little later than last time. In 2021, opening presentations were made in April.
This round of negotiations is going to be closely monitored, both due to the way the last round went and because of how things have transpired since then. The previous CBA expired without a deal on December 1st of 2021 and the league immediately instituted a lockout, the first MLB work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike. The lockout included a transaction freeze and lasted until March 10th, going about as long as it could have gone while still playing a full 162-game season in 2022.
Over the past few years, the economics of the game have featured a number of contradictions. Perhaps due to the pitch clock speeding up games or due to the rise of international stars like Shohei Ohtani, the sport’s popularly is on the upswing. The league regularly issues press releases about increased ratings and attendance figures. A notable statistic was that Game Seven of the 2025 World Series was the most-watched MLB game since 1991. The final games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic had comparable ratings to the most recent NBA Finals.
But at the same time, many claim that not all clubs are benefitting to the same degree. The collapse of the cable television model has hit some clubs harder than others. Many don’t have a regional sports network at all, with the league handling broadcast distribution for those teams. Other clubs, particularly those in larger markets, seem to still be raking in TV money. Though there is a revenue sharing system in place, there is clearly a massive imbalance in terms of spending. RosterResource calculates the Dodgers’ payroll at just under $400MM. They are on track to pay a tax bill of about $150MM, putting them in line to spend about $550MM on this year’s team. That’s more than the six lowest-payroll clubs combined.
The league is expected to push for a salary cap and floor system. They have made such attempts before, most notably in 1994. That led to the aforementioned strike and the cancelation of that year’s World Series, without a cap being implemented.
The union has long been against a cap since it would negatively impact players’ earning power. The MLBPA continues to have that stance even though they recently had a change in leadership. Tony Clark was the executive director until he stepped down in February, in relation to various scandals. Deputy director Bruce Meyer was voted interim executive director shortly thereafter.
Finding consensus will be a challenge, given that owners and players will have opposing ideas about the best solutions for the game’s current situation. Even among owners, priorities may be different. Smaller clubs may like the idea of a cap but would simultaneously be worried about meeting a high floor. In either case, those small clubs would likely suggest greater revenue sharing is necessary, something the bigger clubs wouldn’t be as excited about.
Most in the industry expect a rough battle. The last lockout went to the brink and it’s possible a similar staredown occurs this time. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has spoken about his positive view of lockouts. That prompted Clark, when he was still leading the union, to say he expected another lockout after 2026. Assuming a lockout does take place in December, the major question will be if it is once again resolved in time or if it drags on long enough to lose games in 2027.
For those looking for positive signs, there are some to be found. As mentioned, the game is on the upswing in terms of popularity. Though the league wants a cap, they may not want to push so hard that they have to cancel games next year. Such an outcome would certainly cut into the positive momentum with fans. It would be a poor time to take such a hit since most of the league’s broadcast deals expire after 2028, with Manfred and the league hoping to negotiate lucrative new deals prior to 2029. Manfred is also planning to step down when his contract expires in January of 2029, when he will be 70 years old, and may want to go out with a record of no canceled games.
The exact timeline of what happens after today is not clear. Drellich points out that, in 2021, the union made its first economic proposals in May. The league followed in August. Drellich says talks are expected to continue through the upcoming summer, though no specifics are publicly available at this time.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images
There will be baseball in 2027. A full 162 games and an epic postseason.
I agree 100% with Astros71.
Of course it’ll Dodgers and Yankees, as specified in Sec 31 sub B of the new CBA, “Playoff Assignments For Top Lux Tax Payors”.
Astros – I appreciate your optimism and hope you’re right, but I think a shortened season is highly likely.
Hopefully we get a cap and floor implemented and deferred money counts towards the salary cap
A cap floor/ceiling will not be implemented.
I think we see the typical pay increases for minor league players to make them happy.
We will see deferred money count towards team salary to make small market teams happy.
We will see extra measures implemented to prevent tanking to make big markets happy.
The MLB will get a full season, which means $. That will make them happy.
Hopefully it’s over and done with quickly.
@ gulderc The minor leaguers are on a separate contract with a separate CBA that will still be in force. So their pay will not be a factor in these talks and should not be a factor in these negotiations at all.
That said, the MLBPA does also represent the minor leaguers, something that had not been the case before. So it would be interesting to see how much or what kind of support the union advises (or tries to force) the minor leaguers to provide in a work stoppage.
Please no salary cap.
Just curious why would you be opposed to it?
I’d prefer they fix revenue sharing. The Dodgers have been getting a huge break on revenue sharing this whole time due to a 20ish year old bankruptcy, despite having a top revenue in the league for the last several years.
deferred money already counts towards the CBT. what we need to have though are rules like teams not being able to profit from the interest on deferrals, deferred money not to exceed a percentage of payroll, etc when it comes to deferred money. if deferred limits were enforced like that it would remove the ability of teams like the dodgers to keep piling money on and just paying the CBT for salaries because the financial impacts would hit the way that they are supposed to vs. being made up for in deferred interest, declining escrow value, etc.
While I agree with your proposals, they would be of insignificant impact. Deferred salaries have existed for a long time. The reason why the Dodgers do it more than others has more to do with California’s high income taxes than the team’s wealth. Deferrals are an income tax avoidance scheme for the player, pretty much full stop.
We? Are you an owner?
Deferred salary already counts.
Any other bright ideas?
Deferred money already counts toward the salary cap.
Plan your vacations for next year because the only baseball you will be watching is NPB and KBO.
MiLB teams would not be affected, except for players on MLB 40-man rosters.
Sugar Land and Corpus Christi is not very far
Glad that the owners will hold firm on a salary cap. Teams can’t compete with the Mets who spend more than anyone and blow out teams game after game.
The Mets blow out teams while being in last place?
It was sarcasm. Pretty top notch sarcasm, too. But in reality, the Dodgers are a problem.
LMAO!!! Very good! and the point of this is: money can’t buy happiness in love or baseball.
This season points to the fact that the current revenue sharing system does work; with it’s penalties and added picks.
all three current division leaders in the AL are in the bottom five of payroll
Salary Cap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about a ticket, concessions, and MLB.TV cap?
I’m sure it’s going to go quickly and smoothly with no hiccups and no drama!
These negotiations will be more than good, they’ll be GREEEEEEEAT!
The Players will NEVER agree to a cap unless Owners in small markets can convince they are losing money and why and how they’re losing money. I’m sure expansion will be discussed. wish they would discuss about changing how players get into the the HOF. A lot of players that should be in that are not. And a lot of it has to do with the writers and who ever has a vote hold grudges against players
Thats the narrative, but it may not be the truth. Yes, Tony Clark has always said that the players don’t believe in a cap, and do not believe that spending limits of any kind are necessary. But after years of denying that the players would never go for a cap, he softened that a bit several years ago, saying that any talk of a cap would have to start with also adding a floor, something he believed the owners never would do. More recently, he has said that any talk of a cap would have to be based on a percentage of revenues, which would require the owners to open their books – something the owners have never been willing to do.
Tony Clark is gone now, and we have no idea what the new leadership or the rank-and-file will do once the nitty gets gritty.
A cap with a floor is advantageous financially to the players as a whole, and no one would suggest players in the NFL, NBA, and other leagues are hurting because there’s a cap. The Players Association is opposed to it because it is really run by and for a sub-class of the players, the market-rate veteran stars.
anybody looked into alternative hobbies for 2027?
please share some suggestions, thanks!
Let’s start a Wiffle ball league in small “to scale” stadium replicas… I nominate my backyard for a Petco variation.
Everybody’s making more money every year, why would there be a lockout? No salary cap, no floor, minor raises to salaries, some surface level rules on spending over the cap, a raising cap every year, perhaps a more aggressive tax on those over the limit, a superficial rule for deferred spending without real teeth and the dodgers get a no-free agents rule for two years, the groundwork for two new teams, Mexico City and Nashville or somewhere in the south but a long delay before implementation, and Barry bonds gets into the HoF or they take it away from the writers and we’re done, next negotiations in 2030.
I forgot that also each team has to have a manfred man on second in each inning because fans love that rule and more scoring is more money, and all stadiums have to bring in their walls 15 feet. And demolish Fenway.
Let the mud-slinging from both sides, begin! They’ll play this out as long as possible but in the end, both sides are smart enough to know that they need to come to an agreement. The monetary interest is too high for both sides.
I’m sure things will go smoothly and both sides will get along.
It seems like a salary floor of ~150 million would be great all around, just gotta convince the rich teams to share more money.
It’s about bleepin’ time!
The fact that they haven’t even started yet means that there will be a lockout. They never learn.
Something I’ve been pondering for about a year now that no one has mentioned. This site has even ignored my question on it.
The minor leaguers now unionized. not only unionized, but the union that represents them is the MLBPA.
Can the union advise (coerce) the minor leaguers into striking should there be a work stoppage? And if so, does that no represent a conflict of interest? After all, the minor leaguers will be giving up valuable development time while still having a clock run on their impending [minor league] free agency, something that typically ends the careers of many/most minor leaguers.
If there’s a cap, there’s a floor. No other league has one without the other that is successful.
As someone said above, if there were true revenue sharing including all local TV money, that would be a big improvement.
I have the feeling though, in the end they’ll try to fix the income disparity with some fool idea that won’t work again and we will be right back where we started, with the game further on the way out with the next generation.