MLB's impending CBA expiration

With Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire after the 2026 season, a lot of people in the baseball world are bracing for trouble.

One of the biggest obstacles in the middle of owners and players is the implementation of a salary cap. This rumble turned into a roar earlier this season, when a report from Jeff Passan revealed a confrontation between star Bryce Harper and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in the Phillies’ locker room stemming from the topic of a salary cap even being broached.

It’s also been at the forefront of conversation after the Dodgers just captured their second straight World Series, using $1.2B worth of pitching contracts to clinch game 7 in Toronto, according to a post from Spotrac.

The players need to stand their ground though. There's a reason they are the lone sport without a salary cap, it benefits the owners greatly at the expense of the player.

Fans and team personnel across the league are clamoring for a salary cap however, in an attempt to create more parity and give the smaller market teams a better chance to compete. The main gripe with team executives of small-market teams is that they simply can’t reinvest into their teams the way the Dodgers and other big-market teams can.

Part of that stems from the collapse of the regional sports network model that was once a fountain of revenue for teams. Now really only a few teams have lucrative local television deals, among them of course being the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets.

Another factor experts point to is the rocky relationship MLB has with its national television partners. The battle between MLB and ESPN has been well documented throughout this past season, with ESPN opting out of its deal with MLB in February. They have since agreed to a smaller-scale deal, with MLB’s national tv rights opening up again in 2029 when Rob Manfred reportedly hopes to spark a bidding according to Yahoo’s Chris Cwik in an article from August regarding the agreement.

So a salary cap would appear to be a step in making an effort to shrink the gap in the lopsided spending that we see in MLB, but it also might help to increase the overall value of the league and each of its franchises.

According to a CNBC valuation of the 30 MLB franchises, “A lack of a salary cap in the league has also hurt the bottom line. The NBA, NFL and NHL, all of which have salary caps, boast margins for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, of about 20%. In contrast, MLB, which does not have a salary cap, has an EBITDA margin of 5%, according to CNBC’s calculations.”

Lower salaried players might even be more inclined to favor a salary cap, since it would likely double or triple the minimum salary.

Fans don’t care about any of this though. Fans want as even a playing field as there can be, regardless of whether that means players will have to concede on some issues in the next round of bargaining.

Fans see the Dodgers spending an inordinate amount of money compared to most of the teams in the league and think it isn’t fair. There is no such thing as a level playing field though, and there never will be. The fact of the matter is that the Los Angeles Dodgers will always spend more than the Kansas City Royals or Tampa Bay Rays.

So one would tend to think that most fans would be on the side of making things more even, with the thought process being that if that happens, their team has a better chance than it did before.

If the players do happen to fight off a salary cap, it will probably be at the expense of something else in negotiations.

Sources:
CNBC’s Official MLB Team Valuations 2025: Here’s how the 30 franchises stack up: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/11/cnbcs-official-mlb-team-valuations-2025.html#:~:text=Table_title:%20CNBC's%20Official%20MLB%20Team%20Valuations%202025,Team:%20Chicago%20Cubs%20%7C%20Revenue:%20$528M%20%7C

MLB, ESPN reportedly reach agreement for network to obtain rights to sell out-of-market games, ability to offer MLB.TV: https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/breaking-news/article/mlb-espn-reportedly-reach-agreement-for-network-to-obtain-rights-to-sell-out-of-market-games-ability-to-offer-mlbtv-171316101.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKNWudNCqqLDDVg2XPbgb-y3NpFgbyUJfleQCWjnxfAl_drMgeGUMcyW4gqkKJWFDFzsN76yPcun-Oi_nOfO-SWu4LO4QVfIQLTIBF_zyLFv6eXy_JLNOpS5O_-tcIpJwxws_yKO-GAA7X7Y3kIXvM-03stf0EE-qk2OHsQ0EyZU

Phillies' Bryce Harper cussed out Rob Manfred in meeting: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45842533/sources-phillies-bryce-harper-tells-mlb-boss-get-clubhouse

Spotrac post on X: https://x.com/spotrac/status/1984833912703762706