As it turns out, Manfred meets with all teams during the course of the season, and this time just happened to be with the Phillies. Manfred danced around the idea of MLB introducing a salary cap, without specifically saying those words. This drew Harper’s ire, who told the league’s top executive to “..get the fuck out of our clubhouse.”
Of course Harper is going to object to a salary cap, as he is one of five players on the Philadelphia roster making over $20 million per season in 2025. Harper still has six more years left on a 13-year, $330 million contract signed prior to the 2019 season.
We all know that the Players Associate will oppose a salary cap at every turn. This is how Shohei Ohtani can sign for $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers at age 28, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. can be extended by the Toronto Blue Jays for half a billion dollars starting in 2026.
Baseball and college football cannot hold credibility without a salary cap. Instead, you get the same 6-7 teams every single year competing for championships. In baseball, Pittsburgh will never be able to draw the level of talent that the Chicago Cubs can write blank checks for. Guerrero ironically has the Blue Jays in first place over the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, two of the worst offenders of buying all the free agency toys every winter.
The New York Mets are the largest offenders as to why we will have another work stoppage in baseball before real discussion about a salary cap is on the table. The Mets have a $385 million payroll this year, which followed a third-worst $325 million last year. In 2023, the Mets spent an MLB-most $370 million, only to finish in fourth place, eight games under .500.
Not to be outdone by the Ohtani deal with the Dodgers, the Mets spent $765 million over the next 15 seasons to acquire Juan Soto. The opt-out clause Soto has after 2029 should go a long way to healing the payroll issue, with still 10 years and $460 million left, which is still over 85% of Guerrero’s entire extension.
The Players Association says that player contracts increase value in the franchises, rather than promote a disparity among large and small markets.
Players never seem to stop digging a further hole when it comes to payouts versus production. The National Hockey League just ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that limits player contracts to six years if signing with new teams, and seven years if staying with their current one. Playoff teams also must be cap compliant, which dramatically will reduce players being placed on long term injured reserve (LTIR), only to return for the postseason.
For a league that reports to have turned a $12 billion profit last year, there is just as much onus on lower-end teams that continually refuse to spend, and profit off of league revenue sharing. However, we rarely hear about owners that don’t spend, because all of the attention is put on those who spend more than several lower-end teams combined.
This is where the problem lies. Billionaires can spend money to buy a franchise, then hundreds of millions more to improve the on-field product. Little do they realize that while they may get to hang an extra trophy in a display case, public perception reduces their season to another store-bought championship. Does anyone outside of their fanbase really give a damn that the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series last year? Does anyone outside of Columbus, Ohio care that a college football program spent $22 million to win a National Championship?
When hockey fans complained about the Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lighting having an astronomical salary cap number for their playoff rosters, those teams found loopholes within the confines of the rules. Rules that were closed with the LTIR adjustments mentioned earlier. The Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Buckeyes have no argument, as they are playing a game without rules right now.
Eventually we are going to get a salary cap in baseball, and eventually their sport will become watchable again after Labor Day. Until then, we have baseball’s biggest hotheads, like Harper, screaming at the commissioner for insinuating the change the sport has needed for the past 25 years.
Enjoy the games while you can, as this has the potential to make the 1994 cancellation look like a week in Hawaii.
-JC24
The New York Mets are the largest offenders as to why we will have another work stoppage in baseball before real discussion about a salary cap is on the table. The Mets have a $385 million payroll this year, which followed a third-worst $325 million last year. In 2023, the Mets spent an MLB-most $370 million, only to finish in fourth place, eight games under .500.
Not to be outdone by the Ohtani deal with the Dodgers, the Mets spent $765 million over the next 15 seasons to acquire Juan Soto. The opt-out clause Soto has after 2029 should go a long way to healing the payroll issue, with still 10 years and $460 million left, which is still over 85% of Guerrero’s entire extension.
The Players Association says that player contracts increase value in the franchises, rather than promote a disparity among large and small markets.
Players never seem to stop digging a further hole when it comes to payouts versus production. The National Hockey League just ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that limits player contracts to six years if signing with new teams, and seven years if staying with their current one. Playoff teams also must be cap compliant, which dramatically will reduce players being placed on long term injured reserve (LTIR), only to return for the postseason.
For a league that reports to have turned a $12 billion profit last year, there is just as much onus on lower-end teams that continually refuse to spend, and profit off of league revenue sharing. However, we rarely hear about owners that don’t spend, because all of the attention is put on those who spend more than several lower-end teams combined.
This is where the problem lies. Billionaires can spend money to buy a franchise, then hundreds of millions more to improve the on-field product. Little do they realize that while they may get to hang an extra trophy in a display case, public perception reduces their season to another store-bought championship. Does anyone outside of their fanbase really give a damn that the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series last year? Does anyone outside of Columbus, Ohio care that a college football program spent $22 million to win a National Championship?
When hockey fans complained about the Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lighting having an astronomical salary cap number for their playoff rosters, those teams found loopholes within the confines of the rules. Rules that were closed with the LTIR adjustments mentioned earlier. The Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Buckeyes have no argument, as they are playing a game without rules right now.
Eventually we are going to get a salary cap in baseball, and eventually their sport will become watchable again after Labor Day. Until then, we have baseball’s biggest hotheads, like Harper, screaming at the commissioner for insinuating the change the sport has needed for the past 25 years.
Enjoy the games while you can, as this has the potential to make the 1994 cancellation look like a week in Hawaii.
-JC24