MLB Reportedly Discussed Adding Salary Cap, Salary Floor in Next CBA, Players Opposed

The Major League Baseball Players Association has long rejected adding a salary cap to the sport. MLB owners may attempt to bring it back to the negotiating table ahead of the current collective bargaining agreement expiring on Dec. 1, 2026.

According to Alex Sherman and Lillian Rizzo of CNBC: "MLB officials have discussed adding both a salary cap and a salary floor, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The MLBPA, however, has long been against a salary cap, and the group says its position hasn’t changed."

The likely outcome of the owners pushing for a salary cap, given the history of labor relations in the sport, is either a lockout or the owners backing down from a salary cap and seeking alternative concessions from the MLBPA. At every turn, the players have treated the salary cap as a non-starter in negotiations.

"We're never going to agree to a cap," MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told reporters in 2023. "Let me start there. We don't have a cap. We're not going to agree to a cap. A salary cap is the ultimate restriction on player value and player salary."

There will be fans who would prefer to see a salary cap installed, which would give smaller-market teams a more even playing field against teams in larger markets. Granted, that will only happen if a salary floor is also installed to force traditionally cheap franchises like the Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates to spend competitively.

"I am really cognizant of [the spending disparity between the top and bottom teams], and I'm sympathetic to fans in smaller markets who go into the season feeling like they don't have a chance in the world to win," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times this week. "I think our game turns on fans having hope when you enter the season. I think it's a really important issue that we need to pay attention to."

Players will argue that the top spending teams actually pay players their true market value and that a salary cap artificially limits a player's earning potential. MLB's luxury tax system operates as something of an extremely soft, unofficial cap, punishing teams who exceed that threshold, though contending teams in major markets are generally willing to absorb those costs, allowing the contracts of star players to continue to skyrocket.