The labor deal that is required to have baseball in any given year is about to expire. Following contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars the players association and the team owners disagree on players pay. The franchise owners want smaller contracts worth less money and the players want to keep the salary growth. The owners want a salary cap and a disincentive to keep paying players these huge deals, while the players association wants better pay for minor league players and cheaper teams being more aggressive in free agency.
The way this might happen is the CBA or collective bargaining agreement expiring. This is set to happen in the early portion of the 2026 offseason. The CBA sets the rules for how long the season lasts, how many games there are, aspects of player pay, and the rules for trading players.
If the CBA expires before it is renewed on Dec. 1, then all team and player actions will stop immediately. This means no trades, no free agent signings, and no games. Arguments over the CBA have become so heated that when commissioner, Rob Manfred, was greeted with “Get the f— out of our clubhouse,” Bryce Harper said that when he saw Manfred enter the Phillies clubhouse.
The general sentiment from the majority of the players is that a salary cap would be ineffective and potentially harmful for the game. “I got to get my money. I’m not playing unless I get mine, OK?” two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell said. Other notable all star players agree with Snell. Snell’s comments received great support from other all star players like Bryce Harper and Nolan Arenado.
Former players and managers have displayed a very different sentiment. “When you are in a salary cap industry like we are in our sport, people are going to want players on your team and sometimes you can’t keep everyone based on financial constraints that are imposed upon you,” Kansas City manager Peter Vermes said. The Kansas City Royals have traditionally been very cheap when it comes to dealing out money to acquire top free agents. They were in the bottom 10 teams for spending in 2025.
Heavy disagreement upon player salaries could lead to disastrous outcomes come at the end of 2026. If this heavy disagreement on salary keeps going it could lead to a strike and a delay of baseball for the 2027 season.
There is one compromise that has gained support from both sides of the argument between players and owners. “If you’re going to suppress spending at the top, you have to raise the floor to make those bottom feeders spend money too,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.. This is interesting because the Dodgers have been the biggest spenders with the highest payroll in the entire MLB. Implementing a salary floor could keep players happy by still allowing for a high average salary, while still putting an end to the huge deals that have been all over baseball for the last few years.
