MLB players’ association executive director Tony Clark wants nothing to do with the league trying to implement a salary cap, stating during All-Star festivities in Atlanta that such a system would move the game “backward.”
The salary cap has long been a contested hot topic amidst the ongoing tension between the league and the players’ union.
The obvious culprit of such unease are the numerous smaller-market team owners, who are still worth hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars, refuse to spend the necessary funds to field a contending team. That is why clubs like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami Marlins are perpetually stuck in neutral.
The Marlins are perhaps the poster child for all of this, as they total adjusted 2025 payroll of approximately $67 million. In their World Series-winning year of 1997, their team payroll was $53 million.
A salary cap would ensure the larger-spending clubs like the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Mets are regulated, even though they are taking full advantage of wealthy owners and lucrative local broadcasting deals.
“[The owners] obviously have their interests, and those interests aren’t much different from the interests they’ve had for the last three, four, five decades at this point,” Clark said. “Whereas the game is in a great place — the game appears to be growing and moving in the right direction, with more attendance that we’ve had in a long time — and more people are watching and streaming the games than we’ve ever had before. You would think there would be an opportunity to talk about how to build rather than how to go backward. What the interests are that they have is taking the game backward.”
But a salary cap would have to come with a salary floor, which would force smaller-market teams to spend a certain amount of money to ensure they don’t field skeleton crews that allow those penny-pinching owners to come out ahead at the end of the year.
Alotting equal revenue for each team stemming from regional broadcasting deals would help make the financial landscape a bit more even for that to happen.
But, that seems unnecessary.
Major League Baseball has installed multiple thresholds above the competitive balance tax to punish teams and owners who exceed that number. Similar tiers should be installed at the opposite end of the league’s financial landscape to punish the owners who refuse to invest in their team.
The salary cap will likely be the main point of contention during this winter’s CBA negotiations between the league and union, and all signs are pointing toward another work stoppage because of it.
