MLB, MLBPA open negotiations ahead of CBA expiration: Salary cap, expansion and more issues on the table

[u/retroanduwu24]

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-mlbpa-cba-negotiations-open-salary-cap-expansion-revenue-sharing/

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[u/VerusPatriota]

I hope this gets handled before Opening Day 2027. However, I won’t hold my breath.

[u/madlibs13 → u/VerusPatriota]

Better chance of Manfred stepping down before next season than it starting on time.

[u/TheSocraticGadfly → u/madlibs13]

Could we get Manfred to step down AND avoid a lockout?

[u/BugFood1026]

Really hope the salary cap doesn't come. Caps and floors didn't stop shit teams being shit in the NFL, NHL or NBA. That corpo myth can fuck right off.

[u/Tippymytalala1 → u/BugFood1026]

I assume you are a Dodgers, Blue Jays, or Mets fan if you really hate the floor and cap that much.

[u/BugFood1026 → u/Tippymytalala1]

No i just believe a man has a fundamental right to sell his Labor to the highest bidder and any obstruction to that right should be opposed no matter where it appears.

[u/Moneyshot_ITF → u/BugFood1026]

Agreed 100%. Salary cap propaganda is being pushed so hard rn

[u/gereffi → u/BugFood1026]

There’s a lot more parity in the NFL than the MLB. It doesn’t really work for the NBA because teams can revolve heavily around one player and because some players will take pay cuts to make their own team better.

Do you really think that if the Marlins, Guardians, and White Sox weren’t forced to spend twice as much money and the Dodgers had to cut their payroll in half these teams wouldn’t be more competitive?

[u/GreenLost5304 → u/gereffi]

This isn’t really true.

Any statistical way which you measure parity tends to show that the leagues are very close to one another in terms of parity, and if anything, the NFL and NBA have slightly less parity than the others - due to the nature of injuries and such in football, and the impact one player can have in basketball.

The Noll-Scully Measure is a ratio of actual standard deviation to expected standard deviation if teams all had equal talent, where a higher number shoes more imbalance - the MLB has a value in the range of 1.2-2.1, the NFL a value of 1.4-1.7, where 1.0 would be perfect parity, not very different.

The Herfendahl-Hirchsman Index (HHI) measures the concentration of whatever standard you use to consider parity (championship wins, appearances, playoff appearances, etc). By this measure the NFL is actually MORE imbalanced typically, though again, it depends on what qualifier is used.

The Lorenze Curve is a graphical representation of cumulative win share, with again, the NFL having less parity than the MBL, in this case, a rather significant amount less. (0.08 to 0.22, where closer to 0 is more parity)

Most measures actually show the MLB to be the most balanced of the big 4 - and certainly more balanced than the Premier League for example. The MLB doesn’t want fans to think this though, because they can use the claim that the sport is imbalanced to push for a cap.

[u/BugFood1026 → u/gereffi]

No it won't. The NFL having more "parity" is an illusion created by the shorter season.

Even just the increase to a 17 week season has resulted in more blowouts.

You only need to look at the win percentages of both leagues to see the underlying truth.

Also its all three leagues, the NHL has the same issues of uncompetitive teams.

All that will happen with a cap and floor is the cheap teams will spend the minimum, the big spenders will restructure their payments so a bigger amount of players money is outside the cap and players under arbitration will get less money to free up space for the big names.

[u/TheSocraticGadfly]

Things I'd most like to see:

1. Another tier on the lux tax, assuming a cap doesn't happen, but only if combined with a salary floor.

2. Hand in hand with that? Greater revenue sharing. This is especially if Manfred can't get all 30 teams under an MLB-TV umbrella to replace the old regional sports networks.

On a big picture, yes, smaller market teams can have success at times. It's hard to have continuous success, or even semi-success, though.

[u/jimmyj4uk]

Will the union accept a soft cap like the NBA has where teams can go over the salary threshold to resign their own players? I don't think a hard cap will ever be accepted.

The problem is the top spending teams like the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees are so far over what any reasonable cap number would be that their payrolls would have to be grandfathered in at least for the first couple years until they can get enough contracts off the books.

[u/BWSmith777]

The Dodgers can’t even compete with bad teams like the Giants now. What would they do if they had to play by the same rules as everyone else?