The emails and concerns from owners to force a 2027 labor disruption.
Dear Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, can you please share some of those emails you are getting from baseball fans asking for a salary cap? There seems to be a concentrated effort from Major League Baseball’s ownership side that the business needs to rein in spending by the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership and that has been stated by Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein and suggested by New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and now Manfred has emails. The owners do have an opportunity to push for a salary cap with the players association during upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. The present Collective Bargaining Agreement ends in December 2026. Major League Baseball will be played for the next two seasons without any interruptions, after that, it will be up to the negotiators as to whether there is an interruption in 2027.
“This is an issue that we need to be vigilant on,” Manfred said of the salary cap. “We need to pay attention to it and need to determine whether there are things that can be done to allay those kinds of concerns and make sure we have a competitive and healthy game going forward. The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization. Everything that they do and have done is consistent with our rules. They’re trying to give their fans the best possible product. Those are all positives. I recognize, however, and my emails certainly reflect that there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their team’s ability to compete. And we always have to be concerned when our fans are concerned about something. But pinning it on the Dodgers, I’m not in that camp.” The players association fought a salary cap in 1994 and went on strike. The players association sued the owners for bad faith bargaining and won. History is repeating itself.
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