Major League Baseball and the Players Association (MLBPA) are embroiled in high-stakes collective bargaining negotiations as the possibility of a lockout at the end of the year looms.
The biggest issue dividing the sides is the potential implementation of a salary cap in the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA). MLB team owners believe one would improve competitive balance across the sport, while players remain strongly against a salary cap as it would limit their possible earnings.
Without specifically mentioning a salary cap, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred praised the current group of team owners for being unified in their efforts to achieve what they want in the next CBA, via Evan Drellich of The Athletic.
“I do know this: I think that I have an ownership group that is more united than any group in my entire time in baseball,” said Manfred, who started working with MLB as outside counsel in the late 1980s. “I think they are a group that believes in what I have been arguing for, and that is listening to our fans, trying to make changes to produce the best possible game that we can produce.”
This isn’t the first time that MLB team owners have pushed for a salary cap. The league tried to include one in 1994, which of course led to the players going on strike for 232 days. One of the fallouts from that contentious period was the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
Will Smith, who serves as the union representative for the Dodgers, said the team would vote against any CBA offer that includes a salary cap. That’s a sentiment MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer also shares.
Given that the two sides are at such odds, a lockout is all but guaranteed once the current CBA expires on Dec. 1. After that it will be a matter of whether or not games are lost in the 2027 season.
MLBPA’s latest CBA offer to MLB
With the 2026 All-Star Game now complete, the league and union are expected to resume CBA talks in the near future.
In the MLBPA’s latest offer to MLB earlier this month, they proposed several changes they say are designed to improve the game, protect players’ health and safety, and strengthen the free agency market.
Among them are temporary roster expansions, changes to the 60-day injured list, in-season optional assignments, the continuation of a Rule 5 Draft, MLB service time and salary protections, and player access to all data and video that clubs use.
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