
Major League Baseball remains the only major North American professional sports league without a salary cap in place. MLB's current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is set to expire in Dec. 2026 and commissioner Rob Manfred is reportedly pushing for that to change in the next round of negotiations.
In a recent episode of Foul Territory, MLB Players Association deputy executive director Bruce Meyer said the players hold "the right amount of skepticism" about a potential cap according to a new report from The Athetic's Evan Drellich.
“The league and some of the individual owners have made no secret that they would like to see a system that they tried to get for 50 years, which is a salary-cap system,” Meyer said on Foul Territory via The Athletic.
Drellich's report noted that the skepticism from the players stems from the push for a salary cap coming from Manfred and team ownership groups, who have pitched a cap numerous times in prior negotiations.
“The pitch is like, ‘Hey, this is really good for the players,’” Meyer continued via The Athletic. “One of the things players immediately seize on is, ‘Well, if this is so good for us, then why are they pushing it so hard? Why do they want it so desperately? Why did the other leagues lock out players to get it?’ Guys immediately understand that the reason they want that system is not because they want to pay players more.”
Reports surfaced in April that MLB officials were considering both a salary cap and floor in the next CBA. The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers have become one of the most dominant teams in baseball in part because there is no limit on how much money they can spend to sign the best players. This has agitated other owners, presumably because they don't have endless cash to put down on massive contract after massive contract.
The MLBPA, understandably, likely doesn't want to put a limit on how much cash can get handed to players. They would be interested in a salary floor—a minimum amount each team must spend annually—but that may only come at the cost of an added cap. We'll see where conversations land when CBA negotiations heat up following this season.
You can watch Meyer's full conversation on Foul Territory below:
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as MLBPA Official Says Players Are Skeptical About Potential Future Salary Cap.