MLB players say there will never be a salary cap. They’ve said that as long as I can remember.
I hope baseball’s owners are equally strong-willed in the opposite direction.
That would mean no MLB in 2027.
It would be great. I can’t wait.
It will be amazing to watch a bunch of narcissistic millionaire idiots — on both sides — self-destruct at the twin altars of greed and ego. It would be better than any All-Star Game. (Better than Tuesday’s, anyway.)
Paul Skenes’ role in all this is amusing.
The “future Yankee” has been in MLB for under three seasons, but is part of the MLB Players Association’s eight-man negotiating committee.
Skenes is talking tough about missing games, even missing a season, like he’s Cesar Chavez organizing farm workers.
Which he isn’t.
It’s a bunch of millionaires who want more.
Albeit from billionaires who have more. (Full disclosure: MLB’s owners aren’t all billionaires. Cincinnati’s Bob Castellini is worth a mere $400 million. He should be on a street corner with a tin cup.)
The workers aren’t oppressed.
Nobody is seizing the means of production.
This isn’t even true collective bargaining. That involves things like a pay scale and job security based on seniority.
This is just gluttony.
MLB has a propaganda campaign trying to win hearts and minds to the cause of a salary cap: “Level the Field.”
MLB interim executive director Bruce Meyer fired back with all the hits:
“The ultimate excuse not to compete.”
“Subsidized mediocrity.”
Caps in other leagues are “not good things for players.”
But perhaps a cap in MLB would be good for the fans. It might “level the field.” (I’m hooked.)
Caps in the NFL, NBA and NHL allow teams in smaller markets to legit compete and to retain stars. If the NFL isn’t capped, Patrick Mahomes doesn’t spend his whole career in Kansas City.
But the fans won’t be consulted. Neither the players nor the owners have even a minuscule connection to the citizens.
This is a battle to determine how insanely wealthy men divvy up your money.
There is no “good guy,” not even remotely.
The Pirates might eke out the occasional playoff berth without a cap.
But they can never win enough.
A cap (and the accompanying floor) would put Pirates owner Bob Nutting on the spot.
MLB’s current CBA proposal puts the cap at $245.3 million, the floor at $171.2 million.
Those figures reflect a hard 50/50 revenue split, and that MLB’s bottom line will be going up because of lucrative new media rights deals.
That floor of $171.2 million is approximately $65 million more than the Pirates’ current payroll.
No matter what Nutting says publicly, it’s impossible to imagine him wanting to increase payroll that dramatically. Here’s betting that Nutting is against a cap, however quietly.
MLB players currently get an estimated 47% of total revenue.
A cap would actually deliver more money into the hands of the union’s total membership.
But the earning power of stars would be curbed in terms of both payday and term.
For example, the New York Mets’ Juan Soto has an insane 15-year, $765 million contract. MLB’s proposal would limit Soto to six years, $265 million.
Soto could never get by on that.
As Soto succinctly put it, “That sucks.”
But Soto has nothing to worry about.
The MLBPA is controlled by the stars and their agents, not the rank and file. The big names call the shots.
Here’s an idea: Lower ticket prices. Lower concession prices. Lower merchandise prices. Lower prices for all things MLB. The fans pay less. The owners and players make less. (But still a ton.)
That won’t ever happen.
That’s one thing the owners and players 100% agree on.
Advice to the local union rep: Get your ERA closer to the floor, your velocity closer to the cap.
Trump might get involved. Oh, boy.
