ATLANTA – As MLB commissioner Rob Manfred looks to improve competitive balance in the league, Tony Clark, the executive director of the MLB Players Association, made his position on the possibility of a salary cap abundantly clear on Tuesday.
“This is institutionalized collusion,” Clark said. “That’s what a salary cap is.”
Manfred and Clark separately spoke to members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America hours before Tuesday’s All-Star Game. They touched on a variety of topics, including the possibility of a lockout after baseball’s labor deal expires on Dec. 1, 2026.Â
Baseball is the only North American sport that does not have a salary cap, largely because the players’ union has remained unified and steadfast in its opposition, while MLB owners have continued to push for it several times since the 1970s. Their most recent serious push for a salary cap was in 1994, when the sport’s economics led to a player’s strike and the cancellation of that year’s World Series.Â
“A cap is not about a partnership. A cap is not about growing the game,” Clark said. “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. 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 that’s the best way to go.”
Even though top leaders in the players’ union have publicly stated that Manfred is pushing for a salary cap as he meets with teams for the third straight year, the commissioner denied that notion on Tuesday.
“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred said. “Literally, what I say to them is, I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem.Â
“I then identify a second problem that we need to work together. And that is that there are fans, and a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”
The Mets’ payroll is only surpassed by the Dodgers among the MLB ranks. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
“I’ve never used the word salary within one of cap. What I do say to them is, in addressing this competitive issue that’s real, you should think about whether this system is the perfect system from a player’s perspective. My only goal there is not to convince them of one system or another, but is to convince them that everybody going to the table with an open mind to try to address a problem that’s fan-driven, leads to a better collective bargaining process and a better outcome.”Â
Manfred has expressed concern over the way fans view the disparity in payrolls and revenues across MLB. The New York Mets’ payroll ($332 million), bankrolled by the richest owner in the sport, Steve Cohen, is the second-highest in MLB behind the Los Angeles Dodgers ($341 million). On the complete other end of the spectrum this season are the Miami Marlins, with a payroll of $67 million.Â
The commissioner has maintained that fans of small-market teams, like the Pittsburgh Pirates, view the apparent lack of equality as unfair, because someone like Cohen, who has a net worth north of $21 billion, can spend his unlimited resources to build a better team, while other clubs don’t have the same financial flexibility to improve their rosters or even keep their star players when they reach free agency.Â
It’s important to note that, since MLB is a private business, teams are not required to share their finances with the public. As such, the players’ union believes that teams have the money, but they choose not to spend it.
“A salary cap, historically, has limited contract guarantees associated,” Clarke said. “Literally, [it] One player pit against the other. And this often we share with players as a fixed non-transplant system.
“It does not reward excellence. It reduces it from an organizational point of view. So it is not about competitive balance. It is not a fair vs.
“There is no illusion of grandeur here that it is worth listening to that it is worth listening and what it is interested in from the other side. As a result, the players are being said to be as much.”
About 16 months before the labor deal ends, in addition to both sides, depending on the two sides, it is a strong indication that it can have the most hostile collective bargaining negotiations of baseball since 1994-95, when it spends the league games on the schedule. Although there was a lockout when the end of the previous labor deal ended in December 2021 and as a result, spring training was delayed in 2022, the leagues and unions reached a deal, marching in a march without any sports lapse.
“We can sit on a table, and we can find ourselves at a work stop at 12:01 next year, 12:01,” Clarke said. ,[Players] Hopefully, hopefully it is not really so. ,
Desha Thosar Major League as a reporter and columnist for Fox Sports incorporates baseball. He earlier covered The Mets as a beat reporter for New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian migrants, Dosha, lives on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow it on Twitter @Deeshathosar,
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