Baseball players' chief says union 'has never been broken' and will fight MLB's salary cap proposal
NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the baseball players' association insisted his union will fight management's salary cap proposal as long as it takes as negotiations proceed with the threat of a lockout that could cancel games next season.
Major League Baseball proposed a salary cap last week and appears set to start a lockout after the current labor contract expires Dec. 1.
“Our union has never been broken and never will be,” interim executive director Bruce Meyer said Monday during an online news question-and-answer session with reporters. “Our players have what they have, including being the only sport that doesn’t have this ultimate restriction, the salary cap, because our players have always been the most unified and that’s going to continue.”
Baseball has had nine work stoppages since 1972, the last a 99-day lockout that slightly delayed the 2022 season. Regular-season games have not been lost since a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95, the last time MLB proposed a cap.
The NFL has had a cap since 1994, the NBA since 1984-85 and the NHL since 2005-06.
“The unions in the other sports didn’t agree to salary-cap systems because they thought it was a good thing for players. That’s not what happened,” Meyer said. “In one way or the other, they were not able to fight the way that our union has and not criticizing anybody, it’s just a fact. Our union has always been the most solid, and that’s why our union has the best system.”
Negotiators have not scheduled the next bargaining session. The union last week proposed expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights along with almost doubling the major league minimum and increasing revenue sharing.
MLB’s proposal last Thursday would cap team spending in 2027 at $245.3 million, using figures for luxury tax payrolls that include $20.1 million for benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. It also would establish a payroll floor of $171.2 million, forcing some teams to spend more. The Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball’s biggest spenders, had a $415.2 million payroll on opening day this year — around $170 million over the proposed cap.
“Our salary cap and floor proposal addresses our fans’ concerns by leveling the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 like the other leagues," MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. “Our salary cap and floor proposal addresses our fans’ concerns by leveling the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 like the other leagues. Under our proposal, major league players will receive more compensation in year one of the system than in 2026.”
Los Angeles shattered MLB’s spending record with a combined $515 million in payroll and luxury tax last year en route to its second straight World Series title. Los Angeles’ total was seven times the $68.7 million payroll of Miami, the lowest-spending team, and more than the payrolls of the bottom six clubs combined.
Meyer likened a cap to “Big Brother” telling a team it can't sign a player it wants to.
"At a time of exploding popularity, growth and interest, the owners’ goal is more money in the pockets of owners," he said. “Don’t blame them for that, but that’s what it is. Whether it’s more in profits because they’re holding down labor costs or growing their franchise values.”
Meyer dismissed MLB's contention that payroll disparity causes fans of lower-spending teams to lose hope. No small-market team has won the World Series since the 2015 Kansas City Royals.
“We do not accept the premise that there’s some existential crisis going on,” he said. “People are still lining up to buy these teams, to get in whether as a minority investor or otherwise and that’s because the sport is extremely healthy.”
He pointed out lower-payroll teams do reach the 12-team playoffs and Cincinnati got in last year while the New York Mets did not. Six postseason teams had payrolls above $200 million last year and MLB emphasizes high-spending teams usually dominate the later rounds.
“We don’t want money to be taken away from teams that want to spend it and give it to teams that don’t want to spend it,” Meyer said. “We want to encourage more San Diegos. San Diego is a small-market team that went out, decided to compete, signed a lot of players, turned around their franchise.”
MLB's proposal calls for a 50-50 split with players of defined revenue, including for players spending on signing bonuses for players from high school and college, and international amateurs agreeing to initial contracts.
“It's not even a real 50%. It’s taking billions of dollars off the top before they’re proposing to even share any of that,” Meyer said. "Players' share under their proposal would go down. Players' share for this season, 2026, is projected to be well over 50%. ... Had MLB’s proposal been in place in 2026, players would, we estimate — would lose over half a billion dollars.”
He faulted MLB for how it defined revenue and spending.
“Their proposal of course excludes things like expansion fees, franchise values, the place where they make their most money,” he said. "Their proposal deducts billions of dollars in expenses ... so it’s not even a real 50%.”
“They’ve effectively managed to cobble together the worst system for players in any of the major sports, and not even close,” Meyer added.
Players contracts this year, using average annual values and including benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool, total $6.14 billion, according to MLB's opening-day figures. Slot values signing bonuses in this year's amateur draft come to about $359 million and international signing bonus pools to $208 million.
Under MLB's proposal, there would be an escrow system in which players would have money withheld in the event their share of revenue rises above the specified amount. They would get more money if their share falls short.
“If revenues are soft or they go down, then that means players at the end of the day won’t get the guaranteed money,” he said.
Meyer also said some teams heighten disparity by not spending on players.
“Every team now has the ability to put a competitive team on the field, every single team,” he said. “One of the things that I find kind of ironic in a perverse way, if team X decides we’re not going to spend money on players, well that increases the disparity in payroll.”
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