The leader of the baseball players’ union declared his organization will resist management’s proposed salary cap for as long as necessary while negotiations continue amid threats of a work stoppage that could eliminate games in the upcoming season.
Major League Baseball put forward a salary cap proposal last week and seems prepared to begin a lockout once the existing labor agreement ends on December 1st.
“Our union has never been broken and never will be,” interim executive director Bruce Meyer stated Monday during a virtual press conference 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.”
“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,” he continued. “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.”
The league’s Thursday proposal would limit team expenditures in 2027 to $245.3 million, based on luxury tax payroll calculations that incorporate $20.1 million for benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. The plan would also create a spending floor of $171.2 million, requiring certain teams to increase their payrolls. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who spend the most in baseball, carried a $415.2 million payroll on this year’s opening day — approximately $170 million above the suggested cap.
The league’s plan requests an even revenue split with players from designated income sources, including money spent on signing bonuses for high school and college players, plus international amateur players entering their first 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 explained. “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.”
Player contracts this season, calculated using average annual values and incorporating benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool, amount to $6.14 million, based on the league’s opening-day numbers. Draft slot value signing bonuses in this year’s amateur draft reach approximately $359 million, with international signing bonus pools totaling $208 million.
“They’ve effectively managed to cobble together the worst system for players in any of the major sports, and not even close,” Meyer stated.
