According to one MLB insider, “a work stoppage is very likely” next year due to the wild spending of teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.
The huge sums the Dodgers, Mets, and other wealthy clubs have handed out to stars in recent years have reignited the debate about whether MLB needs to join the NBA, NHL, and NFL by having a hard salary cap. However, such an idea will be vigorously fought against by the MLB Players Association, because as The Athletic MLB senior writer Andy McCullough told Sportsnaut this week, no salary cap is the crowning achievement of the MLBPA.
“From the Baseball Players Association’s perspective, their defining achievement is not allowing there to be a salary cap,” he said. “It’s very hard for me to see a world in which they acquiesce to that in any form or fashion… You could argue that there already is a cap in terms of the luxury tax. But in terms of a hard, can’t-go-past-this cap, it’s very, very challenging for me to see the players ever accepting that.”
However, while he has trouble seeing the players accepting a cap, he expects the league’s 30 MLB teams to put up a strong front to try to get one added into the 2026 collective bargaining agreement. And that could lead to a work stoppage next year.
“A work stoppage is very likely… I think it would be very challenging for the owners to be able to put in a salary cap basically cold in one negotiation,” says McCullough.
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Are Los Angeles Dodgers and other wealthy teams not the only ones to blame for a possible work stoppage?
The Dodgers handing out billions in deferrals and the Mets giving record-breaking deals in recent years will get a lot of the blame for why MLB could see a work stoppage. However, McCullough also believes the clubs at the bottom willing to spend just the bare minimum are just as much a part of the problem with the financial situation in baseball right now.
“I think it’s it’s twofold, because the Dodgers are pushing it into the red in terms of what they can do,” he said. “You know, they got the pedal down or are doing everything they can to try and take advantage of this competitive window, and this time, when they have this money machine in Ohtani. And I think it’s because so many other ownership groups have effectively thrown up their hands and been like, ‘Well, we can’t compete. We can’t sign these guys.’
“And so is the reason people are talking about a cap because the Dodgers are spending a billion dollars? Or is it because nine teams are not giving out multi-year deals?” McCullough added. “I think both things are true. And they’re not unrelated. It just depends on how you see the world. If you think that the money that the sport is bringing in should be parceled out how the owners like it, or if you feel like more of it should go to, you know, the main labor force, which is the players.”
MLB’s current CBA expires on December 1, 2026, at 11:59 PM ET.
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