The Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday served as a fun distraction to the uncertain future of the sport after the 2026 season.
Even with the game thriving in viewership and on-field talent, MLB looks primed for a bitter lockout as the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in place expires on December 1. The biggest talking point is a salary cap, with league owners being completely in favor of a cap and the MLBPA being vehemently opposed. Rob Manfred, the Commissioner of Baseball, is on the owners' side and wants a cap.
"I have an ownership group that is more united than any group in my entire time in baseball," Manfred said. "The gap is $441 million. It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that gap has the same opportunity to win as the top end."
MORE: Every MLB Lockout, Strike, and Work Stoppage in History
While the All-Star Game was a good way to escape from this unrest, that didn't stop a few reporters from asking some of the All-Stars about their stances on a possible cap. Just like how Manfred said the owners are all in favor, effectively every player interviewed was against it.
Naturally, most players with large salaries or on big-market teams voiced their displeasure.
"I think it's bad for the game," Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout said. "The game's in a great spot right now, and I don't support [a cap]."
"The biggest thing for me is every other league has a cap, and not one of those players like it," said Max Muncy of the Los Angeles Dodgers. "So why would we agree to something that no other player likes?"
Muncy's words actually allude to one of the reasons why owners are pushing for a salary cap: the NFL, NBA and NHL all have one. In the case of the last league, negotiations were so bitter that the entire 2004-05 season was wiped out before a cap was ultimately implemented in 2005-06.
Nonetheless, this can also be used as an argument against the cap, which is what Chicago Cubs pitcher David Peterson did; Peterson was the New York Mets' union representative before being traded on June 25.
"It works in basketball in that way because they don’t have as many guys, so you have a lot less guys for the pot to go around, and that’s a league where one or two people on the team pretty much sell the team," Peterson said. "That’s a lot harder to do in baseball."
Speaking of the Mets, they have the highest-paid player in baseball in superstar outfielder Juan Soto, whose 15-year, $765 million contract is the largest in professional sports history. He was asked by Will Sammon of The Athletic about his thoughts on a cap, and his reasons against it had nothing to do with his own salary, but instead was based on the state of the game, much like Trout.
"Baseball is doing great," Soto said. "We’ve been increasing every year. It’s been great for baseball. We are in the best moment in baseball right now in all kinds of ways. Why should we have a cap?"
A year after Soto signed his record-setting deal in Queens, fellow outfielder Cody Bellinger signed a five-year, $162 million contract to stay with the New York Yankees. Before winning All-Star Game MVP on Tuesday, Bellinger offered his opinion regarding the cap.
"If the billionaires are wanting it, they're billionaires for a reason. They want to continue to enhance their portfolio as much as possible," Bellinger said. "Us players understand that. So the answer to your question is, no good."
Of course, all of these players with the exception of Muncy are playing under long-term contracts worth well over $100 million. But what about the players who are making much less or are under pre-arbitration?
Texas Rangers relief pitcher Jacob Latz is playing under a one-year, $793,500 contract, but still chimed in on the cap conundrum.
"Done the right way, it's probably good for competition," Latz said. "But it's bad long-term for the sport. Baseball is very lucrative, but it also allows us to negotiate what we feel is what we're worth."
Cincinnati Reds rookie infielder Sal Stewart, who is open to contract extension talks in the future, left no doubt on his stance against the cap.
"I think it's bad for everyone," Stewart said. "I think it's even bad for the teams, bad for the players, bad for everyone. So yeah, I am not in favor."
Regardless of their team or current contract, these responses make it extremely clear that the players are completely unified in their opposition of a salary cap, maybe even moreso than the owners' support of it as Manfred alleged to.
“The owners, many of them, want a system that not only guarantees their profits, not only increases their franchise values, but essentially is a form of subsidized mediocrity, owner protection, protection from competition," MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer said.
"Salary cap is the ultimate excuse not to compete. It’s the ultimate excuse for an owner to say, 'Gee, I would like to make the team better, but you know I can’t.' Salary caps are bad for fans. Salary caps prevent teams from doing the things that they believe are in their interest to make the team better."
The gap between players and owners is still extremely wide and has no chance of being bridged before December 1. If neither can agree to a compromise in time for the 2027 season, games may end up being rescheduled or even canceled that year.
There was previously a lockout from December 2021 to March 2022 that produced the current and soon to be expiring CBA in the end; due to its resolution at the eleventh hour, games that were originally canceled were made up later in the regular season. But in this case, MLB may be looking at a far more significant work stoppage.
Regardless if the players or owners win out in the end, all involved parties lose if this plays out like the 2004-05 NHL lockout or 1994-95 MLB strike. All the goodwill that the sport has built up in recent years would completely vanish if 2027 is wiped out. And it doesn't look like a Sammy Sora-Mark McGwire home run race is on the horizon to save the sport if this happens.
In order to avoid this dreaded fate, both sides will need to find a common ground before it starts cutting into the 2027 season.
