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The current MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires in a little over a year’s time, on December 1st, 2026. You probably remember the last time the owners and players had to negotiate a new CBA. A lockout began in December 2021, after agreement between the two sides
could not be reached, and continued on for almost a hundred days, until March 10th. At the start of that month, MLB announced the cancellation of some contests, but after Opening Day was pushed back and the schedules re-organized, a full 162-game schedule was able to be completed. Everyone went back to the everyday business of making money, hand over fist.
But four years later, the expiration of the current CBA is looming, and once again there are concerns that achieving a new deal may be problematic. The particular area of contention is one which has cropped up before, but has always been tabled: a salary cap. It’s something which the owners want, but the players have always rejected – both, for very obvious reasons. But circumstances might permit the owners to push harder than ever for a cap this time, with even larger franchises like the Yankees on board. Fans of many teams – let’s be honest, 29 of 30 – are potentially inclined to be on the owners’ side, in any resulting conflict over the topic.
The last time the owners were particularly strident over the matter was in 1994, and it led to the longest stoppage in MLB history, including the cancellation of the World Series that year. While relations between owners and players were particularly strained at that point anyway, the notion of a cap has always been a line in the sand for the players’ union. In July this year, former D-back Tony Clark, now head of the union, denounced the idea: “A cap is not about a partnership. A cap is not about growing the game. That’s not what a cap is about. As has been offered publicly, a cap is about franchise values and profits. That’s what a cap is about.”
Yet many fans have had enough of the blatant disparities in payroll between teams, resulting from equally blatant disparities in revenue, and leading to sharp competitive imbalance. You need look no further than the 2025 Dodgers. Between their $341 million payroll and $167 million in luxury tax, Los Angeles are paying almost the same as the combined salaries this year of the Marlins, Athletics, Rays, White Sox, Pirates and Indians – a full twenty percent of the teams in the majors. The Dodgers’ luxury tax alone is more than the majority of clubs’ payrolls, making a complete mockery of the system of checks and balances supposedly in place. LA just don’t care.
Watching them win nine out of ten games this post-season, against the supposed best opponents the National League has to offer, has only highlighted the situation. Los Angeles bought its way to a super team, and once various health wrinkles were ironed out, it has performed in the playoffs exactly as intended. But even when the Dodgers were merely assembling their behemoth, when MLB Trade Rumors ran a poll in January, more than two-third of over 36,000 respondents were in favor of the implementation a salary cap. And a majority were prepared to sacrifice an entire season of baseball in order to get one. I wouldn’t disagree.
Yes, there will always be exceptions, like the D-backs making the World Series in 2023, or the Mets’ spectacular Mets-iness this year. But as one mid-market team president told Jeff Passan last month, “How do we compete? We try to do everything right. We draft well. We develop well. And then we get the shit kicked out of us by clubs that buy their players. It feels like the game is rigged.” And, so, the battle lines are being drawn. Can you see a way forward to reconciliation? Or is a lockout the only way anything will be achieved, whether or not it ends in a new cap on team payrolls?
Here’s a poll: feel free to explain your choice in the comments!
