Last week provided an early preview of the expected forthcoming offseason lockout. The MLB Players Association made its first collective bargaining proposal to the league on Wednesday. MLB countered with its initial proposal one day later, one that confirmed the longstanding expectation that the league is looking to incorporate a salary cap/floor system in the next CBA.
Readers can find the details of each side’s proposal at the above linked posts. Neither has a chance of being approved by the opposite party. They’re notable only insofar as they provide an insight into each side’s priorities as negotiations get underway. It behooves both to stake out maximalist stances this early in the process.
MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer held a video chat with reporters (including Alden González of ESPN and Evan Drellich of The Athletic) on Monday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, Meyer was less than enthused with what the league put forward. “I thought they would try harder to make it look good, and they didn’t even do that.”
Meyer reiterated the union’s firm opposition to a salary cap, which he called “a form of institutionalized collusion.” MLB’s proposal included what the league deemed to be a 50-50 revenue split between players and ownership. That reportedly would’ve included a $245.3MM cap and $171.2MM floor. A portion of player salaries would be held in escrow in case the league underperformed revenue expectations to maintain the 50-50 balance. The NHL and NBA have used similar setups.
“Using MLB’s definition of revenue and player share as set forth in their proposal and their presentation to us, player share under their proposal would go down,” Meyer said. “Player share for this season, 2026, is projected to be well over 50%, using, again MLB’s definitions of revenues and what counts against player share.” He claimed that if the league’s proposal had been in place for the 2026 season, players would have made roughly $500MM less than they actually will.
League spokesman Glen Caplin responded to Meyer’s comments via a prepared statement. “Our salary cap-and-floor proposal addresses our fans’ concerns by leveling the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50-50 like the other leagues. Under our proposal, major league players will receive more compensation in year one of the system than in 2026,” Caplin said. That’d ostensibly be due to the need for various teams to raise payroll to meet the salary floor.
The union would presumably dispute that assertion. It also seems notable that Caplin’s statement specified “major league players” while Meyer focused on “player share” more broadly. Meyer said the union anticipates the league will propose cuts to spending on amateur signing bonuses, though he added that MLB has not yet done so. “They projected MLB players’ payroll in ’27, ’28, would be flat,” he noted. “The only way to get to even those numbers would be to drastically reduce or eliminate amateur entry compensation, both domestic and international.”
MLB has traditionally looked to curtail spending on amateur players in previous bargaining agreements. The Players Association doesn’t formally represent them until they enter professional ball. The PA does take amateur players into account, as a player’s initial signing bonus can impact their later professional earnings. A player who signs for a modest bonus as an amateur may be more inclined to lock in earnings on an early-career contract extension, for example. That can have a trickle-down effect on free agency.
There’s nevertheless a tension for the Players Association between balancing the interests of amateur and minor league players — the latter of whom are now under the MLBPA umbrella after unionizing in 2022 — against those of major leaguers. The MLBPA had traditionally been willing to make concessions on tightening amateur spending (e.g. accepting hard caps on international bonus pools in 2016) for more immediate benefits for big leaguers. They started to move away from that under the ’22 agreement — most notably in rejecting the league’s offer to agree to an international amateur draft in exchange for the elimination of the qualifying offer, which adds penalties for teams that sign certain free agents.
Interested readers can find more of Meyer’s comments in the linked pieces from ESPN and The Athletic. Jeff Passan of ESPN notes that commissioner Rob Manfred is likely to meet with the media on Wednesday at the end of the quarterly owners meetings. It stands to reason Manfred will restate some of the league’s talking points and provide a response to Meyer’s media session.
It’s worth reiterating that public combativeness on both sides was always to be expected. The 2021-22 lockout featured months of this kind of squabbling. This set of negotiations is likely to be even more contentious. MLB is making its first formal cap push since the 1994-95 players strike; the players’ initial proposal called for a much higher luxury tax threshold and far more revenue sharing that’ll be opposed by bigger-market clubs.
Caplin’s statement added that the league is “ready to listen if the MLBPA wants to counter our proposal at the bargaining table.” Meyer said no talks have currently been scheduled but would be soon, even if to negotiate on areas aside from core economics.
Why do all the MLBPA people make Oscar the grouch sound pleasant to be around? Their PR is so bad.
The union can never win a PR battle, not when the billionaire owners and all the media are already against them.
Lol huh? They could easily win a PR battle; who the hell has sympathy for billionaires?
You would be surprised when you read the forums – seems like most fans think agents ruined the game and back the owners. The trend I have noticed is players are greedy and a salary cap is the only thing that will give the Pirates ( or insert any team other than the Yankees, Dodgers ) a chance to win. MLBPA is in big trouble – they are going to fold like a cheap suit.
Not when MLB owns their media source.
In other words, there’s a reason Marvin Miller focused on keeping the players informed and together rather than waste time and energy catering to a group that will always side with those who control access.
No need to be so dramatic, good lord lol.
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
Solidarity forever!
The heck with these greedy players … A salary cap is a budget, the owners should set the budget, not the employees. Unfortunately, years ago when the owners attempted to work together to keep salaries in line, they were not able to due to collusion … Who cares if we lose a season in order to get the salary cap, the long term aspects of the game will be better.
Greedy?? in comparison to the billionaire owners??? All a salary cap does is limit what players can make and greatly increases owners’ profits. Its also not even a guarantee that it will increase parity! Side with the players or just stop watching baseball.
So what? The owners take all the risks in owning a business.
That is why business owners of all types should never be vilified.
Griping about billionaires because they took all the risks to achieve success is just jealousy.
They own a damn baseball team they print money. The only risk the owners have is if they get forced to sell the team based on any scandals they get caught it, and unless an owner is openly stupid like Marge Schott MLB ain’t kicking one out.
There is no risk when baseball is a legal monopoly and team values rapidly increase because more people want to own a team than there are teams available. Look at how the Padres did a good job spending more and the team value skyrocketed. It is like a stock that triples in value every couple years, measuring the paid dividends is only a small part of the big picture.
What risks did they take? The public foots the bill for the stadium. TV deals and revenue sharing guarantee no team loses money, even the most inept. They buy into a monopoly so they are guaranteed to make a profit on their investment. MLB owners take no risk. Its an old boys club that every new member is guaranteed a good ROI.
I sure wish my business was the same.
Do you sincerely believe the owners AREN’T greedy? If so, that’s equal parts adorable and hilarious.
Collusion is against the law. Let me repeat that another way, it’s a crime.
Are you really stupid enough to think the owners can afford losing 100% of the revenue they would have made while still having to pay nearly all the non-player related bills and still survive as a sport?
The owners aren’t. There will be no lost seasons in MLB. I seriously doubt there will be any lost games. The owners can’t afford the financial and PR loss of that happening at a time when attendance, number of people watching games, and revenue are all growing year after year.
There will be no cap as its currently proposed.
Here is what has to happen for there to be a cap.
1 – open books. No way to believably tell someone that you will pay them a certain percentage of your revenue unless you allow them to see the books.
2 – a national media deal for all local broadcasts. That would mean the Dodgers, Yankees, and other large market teams handing over their TV deals to MLB.
3 – a much more even split of revenue starting with 100% split on media. The difference between the local media deals of the big market teams as opposed to the small market teams is what is causing the issue you are trying to claim MLB needs a cap to solve. It’s all and only about how the teams share revenue.
4 – a 48-51% split of revenue verified by a 3rd party accounting firm. As many have said on here, based on the $13.1 billion in revenue that Manfred claims the game made in 2025, the players payroll was just 41% of revenue that year.
This union is so damn greedy. Can the consumers catch a dub for once? Pls dont budge owners we need some more parity
Are you one of the billionaire owners? I really hope you’re getting a pay cut riding for them like this.
Have you noticed that almost all the accounts supporting the owners are accounts that have never posted before? Makes you say hmmmmmm.
How does licking the shoes of billionaires taste?
If the MLB really raises the minimum salary by almost double Jesse Chavez will come out of retirement.
Typical thuggish union rhetoric.
Unions off all types are relics of a bygone era and should be banned.
You are an absolute moron
Calling a salary cap “collusion” rings very hollow when every other major north American sport has one.
I don’t think the players quite realize how out of step with public sentiment they are, on the salary cap issue.
Every other major sport has open books with the union and a national TV deal as the major source of revenue. In MLB neither is the case. How out of touch do you have to be to not realize those two facts?
Public sentiment was split evenly on the subject on this site, and this site is supposedly all baseball fans.
Its sad that MLB either thinks fans are so bad at math that they don’t realize that MLB’s proposal would have lowered the players percentage of revenue by 3% in 2025 or they are willing to flat out lie to fans.
Since revenue has increased in 2026, will likely do the same in 2027 and 2028, and will explode in 2029 with new national and international TV deals, MLB must really think all fans are morons to make the statements that Kaplan did.
A pox on both their houses if we lose any meaningful part of the 2027 season. Millionaires arguing with billionaires while we fans are taken for granted. Decide how much of the revenue goes to players and how much goes to owners, then put in place the policies that make it happen.
A cap is a non-starter. The players will nerve agree to it.