MLB owners are back with a new salary cap proposal to shut down sport even after Brewers win World Series
MLB owners are back with a new salary cap proposal to shut down sport even after Brewers win World Series
We're now less than a month away from the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the league's owners, with a lockout a near-guarantee starting in early December.
For months, owners and the league office have been promoting the lockout to fans as necessary to address the sport's imaginary competitive balance problems. That this lockout wouldn't be like the others, because baseball needs a salary cap, the league said.
The gap in spending, the marketing campaign went, made it impossible for small market teams to compete thanks to the disparity in payroll. Fast-forward to the end of the 2026 World Series, and it's hard to imagine an argument aging worse than that one.
MILWAUKEE BREWERS BROKE BASEBALL ON THEIR WAY TO REMARKABLY DOMINANT WORLD SERIES RUN
The Milwaukee Brewers, who ranked 19th in team payroll in 2026, completed one of the most dominant postseason runs in the history of baseball. They went 11-2 in October, with their two losses coming by a combined total of two runs. Not two losses by two runs each, literally two runs total. They swept the high-powered Los Angeles Dodgers, never once seeming in doubt of losing a game, let alone the series.
They were three outs away from sweeping the World Series and becoming the first team in history to go undefeated in the NLCS and World Series. Even after blowing that lead with Shane Drohan, they easily handled game five behind likely Cy Young winner Jacob Misiorowski.
It was an obliteration. Oh, and that team they played in the World Series? The Tampa Bay Rays, the team with the 28th highest payroll. The team Tampa beat to advance to the World Series? The Cleveland Guardians, who ranked 30th in the league in payroll. Dead last.
The New York Yankees didn't reach the ALCS, and by October 2027, it'll be 18 years since their last World Series title. The Mets didn't even come close to reaching the playoffs, and haven't been remotely near a championship since Steve Cohen took over and raised payrolls to the highest in the league. Philadelphia didn't reach the World Series, losing in the wild card series. And the Toronto Blue Jays finished in last place.
The timing couldn't have been worse for the owners, now hoping to make their case for a salary cap after the 2026 season showed how little need there is for it.
Instead? On Tuesday afternoon, they pushed for a salary cap yet again, publicly releasing a new proposal that would start their cap and floor system a year later, in 2028.
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"We recognize that clubs will need a full offseason to prepare to operate within the cap and floor system," said MLB spokesman Glen Caplin,
