MLB salary cap dispute heats up heading into labor negotiations .. Rockies Journal ...Middle East

“Just think of it as Monopoly money.”

That’s my go-to response when friends, family and fans ask me about the madness of Major League Baseball’s economic system. It’s the only way to wrap our minds around it.

Of course, for a fan who shells out $20 for a hot dog and a beer at a Rockies game at Coors Field, that’s of little comfort. That’s real money.

But back to the madness.

Coming off two straight World Series titles, the Dodgers will again have a payroll of more than $400 million in 2026. Only four other teams — Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Blue Jays — are projected to top $300 million, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. The Marlins ($79.3) and White Sox ($85.9) bring up the rear. That’s a Grand Canyon-sided disparity.

The rebuilding Rockies, fresh off a 119-loss season, but hopeful with a new front office in place, are projected to have a $131.2 million payroll.

The club held its Fan Fest on Saturday. Hall of Famers Todd Helton and Larry Walker were in town, the new brass met with fans, players percolated with optimism, and Dinger did his Dinger thing.

But a dark shadow looms as MLB once again nears an economic tipping point and talk of a lockout next winter heats up.

According to a recent story by Evan Drellich, the national baseball writer for The Athletic, most MLB owners are “raging” in the wake of Kyle Tucker’s four-year, $240 million free-agent deal with the Dodgers. Drellich reported that it’s “a 100 percent certainty” the owners will push hard for a salary cap beginning in 2027.

Leading the charge will be Rockies owner Dick Monfort, chair of the league’s labor committee. Part of the reason Monfort stepped away from his day-to-day interactions with the Rockies and handed them over to his son, Walker, is that Monfort will be engulfed by the labor battle. Monfort has said that the only way to fix baseball is to establish a salary cap and a salary floor.

Last September, an anonymous mid-sized-market team president told ESPN’s Jeff Passan, “How do we compete? We try to do everything right. We draft well. We develop well. And then we get the (expletive) kicked out of us by clubs that buy their players. It feels like the game is rigged.”

While Monfort and the vast majority of MLB owners see a salary cap as an economic and competitive necessity, the MLB Players Association says a cap is a nonstarter; a line in the sand.

Eleven months from now — on Dec. 1, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET, to be exact — MLB’s current labor agreement expires. At that point, the owners would, in all likelihood, lock out the players. Free agency and trades would cease as they did in 2021.

Worse, if a lockout wiped out most of spring training, an extended work stoppage — baseball’s last was in 1994-95 — would be inevitable. The hope throughout the industry is that it won’t come to that.

Last January, the Dodgers signed left-handed reliever Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 million contract. Big Blue’s move left many fans, and many owners seeing red. Even Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner sang a song of woe.

“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things (the Dodgers) are doing,” Steinbrenner told the YES Network a week after the Scott deal.

On the day of Scott’s signing, MLB Trade Rumors, a clearinghouse for baseball news, ran a two-question poll for its readers. The first asked: “Do you want a salary cap in the next MLB CBA?” After more than 35,000 votes were cast, an overwhelming 67.2% said yes. Then there was this: 50.2% of respondents said they would be willing to lose the 2027 season if baseball implemented a salary cap.

But Tony Clark, the executive director of the MLBPA, has continually said that there’s nothing to fix.

“As an organization, you get ready for the next negotiations as soon as the ink is dry on the previous one,” Clark told a meeting of players’ representatives in December. “I can’t speak for the other side, but our interests are getting into the room and hammering out a fair and equitable deal. That’s our commitment. The other stuff is just noise.”

At the All-Star Game in Atlanta last July, Clark labeled the push for a salary cap “institutionalized collusion.”

“A cap is not about any partnership,” Clark told reporters. “A cap is not about growing the game. That’s not what a cap is about. As has been offered publicly, a cap is about franchise values and profits. That’s what a cap is about.”

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MLBPA’s argument boils down to this: It has watched the NFL, NBA and NHL implement caps, and in every case, the players’ share of revenue eroded afterward. Major League players say they won’t let that happen.

So at a time when baseball is thriving on the field (thank you, pitch clock), and when MLB surpassed 70 million fans a third straight season, a dark cloud hovers over the game.

Surely the owners and players can find a solution. Increased revenue sharing, a better way to distribute television and streaming money, and a salary floor to keep the cheaper owners honest have to be real options.

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