MLB Could Seek to Implement a Salary Cap, But Players Might Push Back

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is reportedly pushing to implement a salary cap, at the behest of the league’s owners. Bruce Meyer, the deputy executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, explained the inner workings of Manfred’s potential plan, and stated that he expects “skepticism” from the players. 

Baseball is the only North American sport that does not have a salary cap, but the owners have pushed for it a handful of times over the last half-century. They even briefly forced one into existence during the 1994-1995 strike, before then-federal judge Sonia Sotomayor restored the previous collective bargaining agreement. 

In fact, Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein touched on the subject while talking at the World Economic Forum when he said: “I wish it would be the case that we would have a salary cap in baseball the way other sports do.”

Manfred has expressed concerns over the way fans view the difference in revenues and payroll in the sport. For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers Opening Day payroll sat just shy of $329 million, an all-time high for the game. On the low end this season, the Miami Marlins started 2025 at $67 million.

While there is an apparent lack of equality without a salary cap, in the sense that one team can choose to spend far more resources than another, it is also the union’s view that there are teams that do have the money and choose not to spend it.

“To the extent we have teams that are unwilling to compete, it’s not because the Dodgers went out and signed some players. That doesn’t explain why the Pittsburgh Pirates, for example, don’t go out and spend money,” Meyer said while appearing on the TV Show “Foul Territory.” “Baseball hasn’t had a repeat winner in 26 years. To fans in small markets, I would say, look, competition is crucial for us, crucial for players. Our market system that we have, it’s not perfect by any means, but it relies on competition.”

That being said, no “small-market” team has won a World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015. 

It has historically been the union’s position to treat any discussion of a salary cap as a non-starter. Executive director of the MLBPA, Tony Clark, reiterated as much in March on his spring training tour, when he said that, “We remain of the mind, as we have over the last 50 or 60 years, that the industry does not need [a salary cap]. It is not necessary.”

Players may push back against a salary cap simply because Manfred and the owners would be proposing it. It could also hurt players because many teams would be imposed with spending limits that would force them to spend less than they’re spending right now, diminishing players’ contracts. 

Manfred has had these conversations with owners before, but a conclusion has never come to fruition, so the reality is that the status quo could persist. 

In March, Manfred spoke on the subject with FOX Sports’ “The Herd,” saying, “We’re just not in a position where we are talking about or have made decisions about what’s ahead in the next round of bargaining. I think that a lot of water is going to go over the dam before we need to deal with that issue.”

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