Would the New York Mets and New York Yankees benefit from a hard salary cap being instituted in MLB’s next collective bargaining agreement? An interesting new report details a few reasons why it would help the pair of NY baseball teams.
There has been a lot of speculation over the last few months that MLB is headed toward some dark days this time next year. The Los Angeles Dodgers dominating the league and winning back-to-back World Series with the most expensive roster in league history has frustrated many around the game. Especially owners of small and mid-market clubs.
Having over a billion dollars in deferred contracts and other teams like the NY Mets and Blue Jays handing out massive deals in recent years has created a narrative that MLB needs a hard cap to stop the out-of-control spending.
In theory, the idea would hurt wealthy clubs because it would diminish their greatest power, spending huge sums of money. However, a new report from The Athletic’s Evan Drellich suggests a hard cap in the next CBA would be a good thing for teams like the NY Mets and NY Yankees.
New MLB hard cap could have a max of $240 million
“Teams like the LA Dodgers, who have a league-high $402 million payroll, the NY Mets, and the NY Yankees would actually benefit from a limit on their spending.
“‘The biggest beneficiaries are going to be the biggest markets, and the biggest losers will be the small markets,'” a management source told Drellich. ‘… The big markets will do well because there will be no pressure from fans to go to $300-400 million payrolls and so forth.’”
Drellich suggests a potential hard cap could top out at $240 million and have a floor of $160 million.
Young stars could hit MLB free agency sooner
Another interesting facet of the addition of a hard cap is the changes players would want made to other contract guidelines to benefit them in different ways.
“The free agency and arbitration processes would also change,” Drellich suggests. “In the current system, it would be almost unthinkable for owners to let players become free agents sooner than the current wait time of six years, or to hit arbitration earlier than the current standard of three years. But a cap could reduce those wait times.”
New York has always been a top destination for free agents, especially because of the prestige of the Yankees brand. Shortened rookie contracts and arbitration mean young stars would be available for the pair of NY clubs far sooner.
NY Mets and NY Yankees could get out of bad contracts sooner
Another change to contracts that might come with a new hard cap is that, according to Drellich, deals may no longer be guaranteed. In a hard cap system, payroll limits are tied to overall revenue from the league. That makes guaranteed deals harder to have.
While it is not a lock, it is a possibility, which means the NY Mets and NY Yankees would be able to get out bad deals sooner than they can now.
