The MLB owners meetings start Tuesday at the league’s N.Y. headquarters, with labor being a key point of discussion. The owners will discuss their labor strategy with the CBA set to expire on Dec. 1, 2026, and a potential lockout looming.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly stressed that owners have yet to decide whether to push for a salary cap, though no one would be surprised if they do. Rockies owner Dick Monfort and Orioles owner David Rubenstein have come out publicly in support of a cap. The MLBPA is vehemently opposed. The Dodgers spent an MLB-record $509M in total payroll in 2025 to become the first team in a quarter century to repeat as World Series champion. According to MLB, $168M of that total was paid to the competitive balance tax.
In a statement, The Players Association called the Dodgers’ figures “misleading on their face” because that includes “as ‘payroll’ luxury-tax amounts that are not paid directly to players on those teams. In fact, about half of the luxury tax proceeds are rerouted directly to small-market clubs as a form of revenue sharing. And the other half are used to fund benefits for players on all 30 teams.”
There have been no games missed due to a labor dispute during Manfred’s nearly 11-year tenure as commissioner. Any prolonged work stoppage could harm the league’s momentum of increases in revenue, attendance and TV ratings.
Manfred is also looking to sell a national streaming package when all of the broadcast rights are up after the 2028 season. MLB desires to replicate, if not exceed, the NBA’s 11-year, $77B national TV deal, though a labor battle featuring missed games would make that difficult. Meanwhile, the league’s short-term national media deal (2026-28) is said to be close and will be a topic of conversation this week. It will also be the first owners meetings for Patrick Zalupski since his group purchased the Rays for $1.7B.
With the owners meeting beginning today, THE ATHLETIC’s Evan Drellich writes under the header, “MLB is flying high. Why does it seem to be barreling toward a work stoppage?”
