Baseball players' chief says union 'has never been broken' and will fight MLB's salary cap proposal
NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the baseball players' association insisted his union will fight management's salary cap proposal as long as it takes as bargaining moves forward with the threat of a lockout that could cancel games next season.
Major League Baseball proposed a salary cap last week and appears set to start a lockout after the current labor contract expires Dec. 1.
“Our union has never been broken and never will be,” interim executive director Bruce Meyer said Monday during an online news question-and-answer session with reporters. “Our players have what they have, including being the only sport that doesn’t have this ultimate restriction, the salary cap, because our players have always been the most unified and that’s going to continue.”
“The unions in the other sports didn’t agree to salary-cap systems because they thought it was a good thing for players. That’s not what happened,” he added. “In one way or the other, they were not able to fight the way that our union has and not criticizing anybody, it’s just a fact. Our union has always been the most solid, and that’s why our union has the best system.”
MLB’s proposal last Thursday would cap team spending in 2027 at $245.3 million, using figures for luxury tax payrolls that include $20.1 million for benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. It also would establish a payroll floor of $171.2 million, forcing some teams to spend more. The Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball’s biggest spenders, had a $415.2 million payroll on opening day this year — around $170 million over the proposed cap.
MLB's proposal calls for a 50-50 split with players of defined revenue, including for players spending on signing bonuses for players from high school and college, and international amateurs agreeing to initial contracts.
“It's not even a real 50%. It’s taking billions of dollars off the top before they’re proposing to even share any of that,” Meyer said. "Players' share under their proposal would go down. Players' share for this season, 2026, is projected to be well over 50%. ... Had MLB’s proposal been in place in 2026, players would, we estimate — would lose over half a billion dollars.”
Players contracts this year, using average annual values and including benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool, total $6.14 million, according to MLB's opening-day figures. Slot values signing bonuses in this year's amateur draft come to about $359 million and international signing bonus pools to $208 million.
“They’ve effectively managed to cobble together the worst system for players in any of the major sports, and not even close," Meyer said.
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