MLBPA Interim Executive Director Bruce Meyer said Monday that players would lose over $500M if MLB’s hard salary cap and floor proposal, which includes a 50-50 revenue split, were in place for the 2026 season.
“The cap system they’ve proposed is not just bad for all the reasons that we believe cap systems are always bad, but they’ve effectively managed to cobble together the worst system for players in any of the major sports, and it’s not even close,” Meyer told reporters.
For the first time in over three decades, MLB introduced a cap proposal as part of its counter to the union in labor talks, with the CBA set to expire Dec. 1. The union remains vehemently opposed to a salary cap, as it has been for decades.
Meyer said that the league’s proposal was worse than his recollection of the 1994 proposal that resulted in a strike and the World Series being canceled because it includes escrow, which he said basically makes everything non-guaranteed as it is tied to revenue.
“Our union has never been broken and never will be,” Meyer said. “You can take away a different lesson from our history, but that would be a big mistake.”
With the gap between the haves and have nots continuing to increase, MLB’s cap system included a $245.3M hard cap and a $171.2M floor. The league’s proposal also included local media revenue being fully shared.
“Our salary cap and floor proposal addresses our fans’ concerns by leveling the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50-50 like the other leagues. Under our proposal, major league players will receive more compensation in year one of the system than in 2026. We are ready to listen if the MLBPA wants to counter our proposal at the bargaining table,” MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin said.
The union said in its opening proposal that increased revenue sharing would guarantee every small-market team with a minimum of $240M in revenue annually.
Other key components of the MLBPA proposal include a minimum salary of $1.5M starting in 2027, the elimination of the qualifying offer, free agency for players with five or more years of service time who have reached age 30, and an increase in luxury tax thresholds (to $300M from $244M).
The union says the $240M in minimum revenue sharing would come with stipulations that those funds be used to improve on-field performance, with those teams having payrolls of at least $150M. The MLBPA wants to increase revenue-sharing to smaller-market teams, but also incentivize winning and allowing teams to keep more of their local non-media stadium revenues.
MLB has cited a $446M gap between the total payrolls of the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers ($515M, including $169M in luxury taxes) and the Marlins ($69M) last season. The last small-market team to capture the Fall Classic was the 2015 Royals.
Still, the union believes owners do not care as much about competitive balance as they do creating fixed-cost certainty and increasing franchise values. Small-markets like Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Milwaukee have all had consistent success in recent years, though they have been unable to win it all.
“We do not accept the premise that there’s some sort of existential crisis going on,” Meyer said.
The league has yet to make proposals on reserve clause issues like free agency or salary arbitration. The union continues to analyze the league’s proposal, though it did make a presentation to its executive board.
As for next steps, Meyer said: “We don’t have a meeting scheduled at the moment but we’re going to be working on that. Even if we’re not making progress on the major economic components, there are a lot of other things to bargain over. We’re never going to refuse to meet or talk. We will [get something scheduled] in the near future.”
Meanwhile, MLB owners are set to convene in New York this week, with labor a significant topic of conversation.
Still, it’s clear that there’s a wide gap between the two sides, even with talks in the early stage.
“Very surprised,” Meyer responded when asked about the gap. “I thought they would try harder to make it look good and they didn’t even do that.”
