As Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations threaten to derail the 2027 Major League Baseball (MLB) season before it has even begun, the league has tabled a new proposal that would delay its targeted salary cap motion until 2028.
The main divide between MLB and the MLBPA labor union comes down to the idea of a salary cap, which MLB team owners want, but MLB players are staunchly opposed to.
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Now, MLB has proposed that its initial hard salary cap, which it now aims to set at $258.2 million, not be introduced until the 2028 campaign, giving teams a full season to adapt to the forthcoming ruling.
That salary cap now tabled is a $12.9 million increase on the initial proposal of $245.3 million, while the accompanying salary floor proposal, now $180.2 million, has also increased as the league looks to strike a deal as 2026-27 free agency begins.
Other concessions include a reduction of team control, allowing players to hit free agency after five years of service, not six, and raising the league minimum salary from $780,000 to $1 million.
While the MLBPA has always opposed the idea of capping salaries, to the point of a strike back in 1994 that saw an entire year without baseball, the league hoped that a transition year of sorts would ameliorate the MLBPA’s immediate concerns over capping player revenue, paired with a salary floor that would ultimately raise the average wage.
The league says that this new proposal would “allow a smoother transition into the cap and floor system without delaying key player benefits.”
Despite this, the MLBPA has already opposed the new proposal.
In a statement, the labor union said that MLB’s new proposal would result in a “massive” reduction in player compensation, particularly at the top end of the pay scale, a $400M decrease in amateur signing bonuses, restricting player rights (such as guaranteed contracts), and, in all, a ‘zero-sum’ system that ‘pits player against player’.
The worst affected category, the union argues, is the ‘middle class’, those who earn above the league minimum salary, but are not on superstar wages, a group that would see potential earning power wiped out as capped spending reduces willingness to pay seven or eight-figure salaries for non-star players.
MLB is the only one of the four US major sports leagues (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB) to not enforce a salary cap, nor does it enforce a spending floor, which in recent years means that a large gap has developed between high-spending teams like the champion LA Dodgers (which has a payroll of around $420 million), and the low spenders like the Miami Marlins (payroll c.$78 million).
Effectively, the proposal outlines that owners will find it hard to achieve strong market value outcomes for selling their teams without a cap, as new investors would be loathe to spend lavish seven- or eight-figure sums on teams without parity guarantees.
The league claims that without a salary cap, it may find it hard to maintain a competitive balance among franchises, a factor that is harming franchise values, particularly at smaller-market teams.
That claim has taken a hit this season, as the World Series was won by the Milwaukee Brewers franchise, one of the smallest payroll teams in MLB, which swept past the Dodgers in the process.
Indeed, the MLBPA has often rejected narratives surrounding the salary cap as a positive measure, arguing that any cap would only serve to enrich owners, many of whom may not have to spend as much as before to compete, at the expense of players.
In its latest statement, the MLBPA said that MLB owners “continue to propose blowing up the current system and replacing it with one designed to line their pockets and increase their franchise values.
