Leave it to commissioner Rob Manfred, of all people, to be the voice of reason on the push among some major-league owners for a salary cap.
Manfred, speaking Thursday at the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., said a cap is not the only way for the sport to address the growing revenue disparity between baseball’s haves and have-nots. slim fit boxers
“I am a huge believer in the idea that there are always multiple solutions to a particular set of concerns,” Manfred said.
The debate over whether a cap would be good for baseball is again taking place not just among owners, but also among fans. While the discussion is not unreasonable, players find the idea unacceptable, just as they did when they went on strike over the issue in 1994-95. Their opposition remains so vehement, the owners know if they take a hard-line stance on a cap, it almost certainly would lead to a shutdown of the sport after the current collective-bargaining agreement expires in December 2026.
Which, at a time when the game is experiencing something of a renaissance, would be dumber than when the owners conspired to hold down salaries in the late 1980s, costing themselves $280 million in damages when they were found guilty of three separate acts of collusion.
It’s possible, perhaps even likely, Manfred was playing possum when he spoke of “multiple solutions” for revenue disparity. The threat of an owners’ lockout is nearly two years away. A labor Armageddon is the last thing Manfred needs fans worrying about, particularly coming off a season in which the sport generated record revenues of $12.1 billion.
But let’s not forget, Manfred works for the owners. And while the game’s swarm of analysts do not track metrics for “earliest battle cries prior to a CBA negotiation,” the rumblings from owners and executives seem to be starting even sooner than usual:
* David Rubenstein, the Baltimore Orioles’ new owner, told Yahoo Finance during the World Economic Forum, “I wish it would be the case that we would have a salary cap in baseball the way other sports do.”
Funny, Rubenstein is a private equity billionaire who last March, with no assurance of a cap, had no problem paying $1.735 billion for the control stake of the Orioles.
* New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, decrying the spending of the Los Angeles Dodgers, told the team’s YES Network, “It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing now.”
Funny, Forbes last March valued Steinbrenner’s team at a major-league high $7.55 billion and the Dodgers at $5.45 billion.
* New York Mets general manager David Stearns, speaking to CNBC about the need to close “spending gaps,” said, “ . . . markets like Milwaukee and Tampa, when you draft and develop or sign and develop a star, you should have the ability and the capability to really keep those stars in smaller markets. We’ve seen other sports figure out how to make that happen. Baseball has a little bit of a tougher time figuring out how to make that happen.”
Funny, Stearns previously worked for the Brewers, who play in the smallest market in baseball, yet signed outfielders Christian Yelich to a nine-year, $215 million contract and Jackson Chourio – after Stearns departed – to an eight-year, $82 million deal. And the Brewers, like Tampa Bay, the other team Stearns mentioned, consistently find a way to compete.
There is no disputing that small-market teams are at a financial disadvantage, and often lose star players. But it’s also true that those teams occasionally keep some stars long-term, and perhaps could invest more of their revenue-sharing dollars in major-league payroll.
Kansas City extended Bobby Witt Jr. for $288.8 million. Julio Rodríguez stayed in Seattle for $209.3 million, José Ramírez in Cleveland for $141 million, Corbin Carroll in Arizona for $111 million. Even the notoriously thrifty Pittsburgh Pirates signed three of their current players — Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller — for a combined $253.75 million. And the forever-diving-to-the-bottom Miami Marlins bought out three of Sandy Alcantara’s free-agent years in a $56 million deal.
The San Diego Padres stand as proof that small-market teams should not operate as if they are doomed. Peter Seidler, the Padres’ late owner, transformed his franchise into a phenomenon by spending heavily, if not always wisely. The Padres play in the game’s fourth-smallest media market, yet are coming off four straight top-five rankings in attendance and three playoff appearances in the past five years. It’s unclear whether their inactivity this offseason is a necessary pullback, a product of the lawsuit between Seidler’s widow and brothers, or both. But Peter Seidler’s heart was in the right place. The game needs more owners like him.
Turnover is occurring in the ownership ranks. Whether it produces more aggressive spending remains to be seen. Yet, for all the handwringing about the sport being broken, private-equity types like Rubenstein, Cleveland Guardians minority owner David Blitzer and Justin Ishbia, a proposed buyer of the Minnesota Twins, want to own clubs. Blitzer holds stakes in two teams that play in salary-cap leagues, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and in 2022 purchased a 25 to 30 percent share in the Guardians with a pathway to becoming majority owner.
Can the game’s current economic system be more equitable? Absolutely. Which brings us back to Manfred’s “multiple solutions.” Reducing the game’s financial and competitive disparities should not be an insurmountable task.
Make the luxury-tax thresholds higher, but the penalties steeper; about 50 percent of luxury-tax proceeds go to small-market teams. Redistribute draft picks to give small-market clubs better positions and additional selections. Force those teams to spend by instituting penalties for falling below certain payroll thresholds, similar to the ones that exist at the top of the luxury-tax structure.
Don’t like those ideas? Fine, come up with others. The game is full of hotshots who are quite impressed with their own intellects. The owners, though, again seem prepared to expend considerable energy trying to get a cap, the same stunt they pull, in one form or another, in virtually every CBA negotiation. Better they focus on the sport’s existing foundation, which is far more solid than they care to admit, even with the regional television landscape changing.
Manfred has overseen every CBA negotiation for the owners since the 1994-95 strike, and is rightly proud that under his watch, the league has not missed a game due to a work stoppage. The owners lusting for a cap perhaps forget the damage caused by the last strike, which occurred while Bud Selig was commissioner. The sport did not fully recover until the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home-run race in 1998. And that thrill, as we came to learn, was tainted.
How would the sport revive from another stoppage? The owners advocating for a cap should not even want to flirt with that question. Their “sky is falling” act is already growing tiresome. Fix the sport some other way. Or sell your damn team.
(Top photo of Hal Steinbrenner after the Yankees won the 2024 ALCS: Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
travel socks Ken Rosenthal is the senior baseball writer for The Athletic who has spent nearly 35 years covering the major leagues. In addition, Ken is a broadcaster and regular contributor to Fox Sports' MLB telecasts. He's also won Emmy Awards in 2015 and 2016 for his TV reporting. Follow Ken on Twitter @Ken_Rosenthal