MLBPA director: 'A cap is not about growing the game'
Will baseball ever adopt a salary cap? Of the five North American largest professional sports leagues, Major League Baseball is the only one without a salary cap in place.
Though we are 18 months away from the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association, the topic is coming up for a reason.
Both MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA director Tony Clark separately addressed members of the BBWAA Tuesday morning, with the issue of a salary cap coming up with both of them. As always, the MLBPA is vehemently against the idea.
"A cap is not about a partnership. A cap is not about growing the game," Clark said. "A cap is about franchise values and profits. That’s what a cap is about."
The MLBPA has always tried to negotiate other ways to address competitive balance and payroll disparity in other ways, though some major names in the game -- including Scott Boras, baseball's biggest agent -- believe baseball has less of a parity issue than leagues such as the NFL. One of the ways they've done this is proposing a payroll floor, which MLB opposed as it would need increased revenue sharing for small-market clubs to afford to spend above a proposed floor.
"If there are ways that we need to improve the existing system to polish some of the rough edges that otherwise exist, we have made proposals to do that. We will continue to make proposals to do that and believe that is the best way to go," Clark said. "A salary cap, historically, has limited contract guarantees associated with it. It literally pits one player against another and it’s often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence; it undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about fair vs. not. This is institutionalized collusion. That’s what a salary cap is."
What a salary cap system has, however, is a cap and floor, forcing all teams to spend within a specific window. That includes the NFL and NHL, which have hard-cap systems, and the NBA and MLS, which have soft-cap systems.
The salary cap has long been a nonstarter for the MLBPA, as attested by the long-term damage caused by the 1994-95 players' strike in which the World Series was cancelled. Any time the topic has come up, as it did again today, the MLBPA has been quick to shut it down.
Several owners this year have either come out and said they wished MLB had a cap system, such as Orioles owner David Rubenstein, or have at least been publicly open to the idea, including Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner. Manfred has also spent a lot of time talking to players about fixing the system. And just yesterday, Manfred said on the Pat McAfee Show that they need to "deal with" MLB's current system so fans in small markets, specifically Pittsburgh, feel there's a "fair chance" to compete.
The union views this as choosing to not negotiate in good faith and using a lockout as leverage to get what they want.
"Every time we sit down at a collective bargaining table, our goal is to get a fair and equitable deal," Clark said. "I was a pup in '94 and '95. I was a young player, veterans took care of me and I was educated on what the challenges were and as you’ll recall, that was the longest work stoppage we ever had over the same issue. There are no illusions of grandeur here in regards to what it is we’re hearing and what it is the interests of the other side seem to be. As a result, players are being told as much, players are working through, as I mentioned earlier, in regards to our preparations for bargaining, making sure they understand and appreciate what the issues are and what the concerns are and making sure, above and beyond everything else, that we get their feedback in regards to what’s most important to them. It’s also part of the reason why players, last December, decided to retain all of their group licensing program dollars. A group licensing program that has grown exponentially and has put players in a position where making the determination that we may be sitting down at a table where we may find ourselves in a work stoppage at 12:01 on Dec. 1 of next year. That they are preparing for that while hoping that is indeed not the case."
Right now, five teams are over the $241 million competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold, otherwise known as the luxury tax: The Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays -- all large-market clubs. The disparity between the Dodgers and Marlins -- the highest and lowest CBT payrolls, respectively -- is $273.8 million. That's down from the $312.7 million from a couple of years ago, but is still a huge problem.
The latest CBA was ratified in March 2022, and it expires following the 2026 season. If the owners are becoming more galvanized toward pushing for a salary cap again, this isn't a typical issue that's collectively bargained. It's something that would drastically alter the landscape of the game. Thus, a lengthy lockout could be on the horizon. When the NHL and NHLPA had a labor dispute over the institution of a salary cap, they lost the entire 2004-05 season.
Another wrinkle in this, just as the players have long been against a cap system, the owners have long been for the implementation of a cap. And, because of the owner-imposed lockout prior to the ratification of the current CBA, MLB has had to go into damage control in terms of repairing its relationship with the players. So, how Manfred goes about addressing any kind of change has to be done with caution.
"When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them on a salary cap system," Manfred said. "Literally, what I say to them is I identified a problem in the media business and I explained to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identified a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem. I never used the word 'salary' within one of 'cap.' What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue, that is real, we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a player’s perspective. My only goal here is not to convince them of one system or another, but is to convince them that everybody go to the table with an open mind to try to address a problem that is fan driven and it leads to a better collective bargaining process."
Should Manfred and MLB head into bargaining with the idea of pushing hard for a salary cap system, there's no doubt the MLBPA will fight back on it. And, based off both precedent and history, it could lead to long, long lockout.
"We don’t know what it is they are going to propose. We know what it is they are saying they are interested in," Clark said. "We’ll get in a room and see what it is that they propose. But once you are in that system, the history suggests that whatever it is the player may be receiving on Day 1, they may not be receiving on Day 2. The history is, more lockouts, more work stoppages as a result of that system being in place."
THE ASYLUM
MLBPA director: 'A cap is not about growing the game'
Will baseball ever adopt a salary cap? Of the five North American largest professional sports leagues, Major League Baseball is the only one without a salary cap in place.
Though we are 18 months away from the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association, the topic is coming up for a reason.
Both MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA director Tony Clark separately addressed members of the BBWAA Tuesday morning, with the issue of a salary cap coming up with both of them. As always, the MLBPA is vehemently against the idea.
"A cap is not about a partnership. A cap is not about growing the game," Clark said. "A cap is about franchise values and profits. That’s what a cap is about."
The MLBPA has always tried to negotiate other ways to address competitive balance and payroll disparity in other ways, though some major names in the game -- including Scott Boras, baseball's biggest agent -- believe baseball has less of a parity issue than leagues such as the NFL. One of the ways they've done this is proposing a payroll floor, which MLB opposed as it would need increased revenue sharing for small-market clubs to afford to spend above a proposed floor.
"If there are ways that we need to improve the existing system to polish some of the rough edges that otherwise exist, we have made proposals to do that. We will continue to make proposals to do that and believe that is the best way to go," Clark said. "A salary cap, historically, has limited contract guarantees associated with it. It literally pits one player against another and it’s often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence; it undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about fair vs. not. This is institutionalized collusion. That’s what a salary cap is."
What a salary cap system has, however, is a cap and floor, forcing all teams to spend within a specific window. That includes the NFL and NHL, which have hard-cap systems, and the NBA and MLS, which have soft-cap systems.
The salary cap has long been a nonstarter for the MLBPA, as attested by the long-term damage caused by the 1994-95 players' strike in which the World Series was cancelled. Any time the topic has come up, as it did again today, the MLBPA has been quick to shut it down.
Several owners this year have either come out and said they wished MLB had a cap system, such as Orioles owner David Rubenstein, or have at least been publicly open to the idea, including Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner. Manfred has also spent a lot of time talking to players about fixing the system. And just yesterday, Manfred said on the Pat McAfee Show that they need to "deal with" MLB's current system so fans in small markets, specifically Pittsburgh, feel there's a "fair chance" to compete.
The union views this as choosing to not negotiate in good faith and using a lockout as leverage to get what they want.
"Every time we sit down at a collective bargaining table, our goal is to get a fair and equitable deal," Clark said. "I was a pup in '94 and '95. I was a young player, veterans took care of me and I was educated on what the challenges were and as you’ll recall, that was the longest work stoppage we ever had over the same issue. There are no illusions of grandeur here in regards to what it is we’re hearing and what it is the interests of the other side seem to be. As a result, players are being told as much, players are working through, as I mentioned earlier, in regards to our preparations for bargaining, making sure they understand and appreciate what the issues are and what the concerns are and making sure, above and beyond everything else, that we get their feedback in regards to what’s most important to them. It’s also part of the reason why players, last December, decided to retain all of their group licensing program dollars. A group licensing program that has grown exponentially and has put players in a position where making the determination that we may be sitting down at a table where we may find ourselves in a work stoppage at 12:01 on Dec. 1 of next year. That they are preparing for that while hoping that is indeed not the case."
Right now, five teams are over the $241 million competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold, otherwise known as the luxury tax: The Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays -- all large-market clubs. The disparity between the Dodgers and Marlins -- the highest and lowest CBT payrolls, respectively -- is $273.8 million. That's down from the $312.7 million from a couple of years ago, but is still a huge problem.
The latest CBA was ratified in March 2022, and it expires following the 2026 season. If the owners are becoming more galvanized toward pushing for a salary cap again, this isn't a typical issue that's collectively bargained. It's something that would drastically alter the landscape of the game. Thus, a lengthy lockout could be on the horizon. When the NHL and NHLPA had a labor dispute over the institution of a salary cap, they lost the entire 2004-05 season.
Another wrinkle in this, just as the players have long been against a cap system, the owners have long been for the implementation of a cap. And, because of the owner-imposed lockout prior to the ratification of the current CBA, MLB has had to go into damage control in terms of repairing its relationship with the players. So, how Manfred goes about addressing any kind of change has to be done with caution.
"When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them on a salary cap system," Manfred said. "Literally, what I say to them is I identified a problem in the media business and I explained to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identified a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem. I never used the word 'salary' within one of 'cap.' What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue, that is real, we should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a player’s perspective. My only goal here is not to convince them of one system or another, but is to convince them that everybody go to the table with an open mind to try to address a problem that is fan driven and it leads to a better collective bargaining process."
Should Manfred and MLB head into bargaining with the idea of pushing hard for a salary cap system, there's no doubt the MLBPA will fight back on it. And, based off both precedent and history, it could lead to long, long lockout.
"We don’t know what it is they are going to propose. We know what it is they are saying they are interested in," Clark said. "We’ll get in a room and see what it is that they propose. But once you are in that system, the history suggests that whatever it is the player may be receiving on Day 1, they may not be receiving on Day 2. The history is, more lockouts, more work stoppages as a result of that system being in place."
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