MLB Raises Salary Cap Offer, Pushes Start Back to 2028

MLB’s ardent push for a salary cap is now coming with a new inducement as it tries to win over highly skeptical players: a one-year delay in the implementation of a hard cap and floor. 

As part of ongoing negotiations between the league and MLB Players Association, management has proposed a delay in starting a cap-based system until 2028. That’s a sizable change from the intended 2027 beginning of a cap that had been formally proposed in late May and has been the foundation of team owners’ labor platform in the five-plus months since then. 

With the proposed delay, club owners have also offered to change the prior offer of a $245.3 million salary cap to $258.2 million, while also lifting the initial floor from a prior $171.2 million to $180.2 million. 

Even with that change, 12 clubs would need to increase their payroll by a combined $636 million, based on 2026 luxury-tax payrolls, a group that includes the defending World Series champion Brewers and American League pennant winner Rays. Eight clubs, meanwhile, would need to reduce payroll by a combined $528 million, most notably the Dodgers, who had a 2026 luxury-tax payroll of $433 million. 

A core reason behind the time shift is the growing awareness that introducing a change as radical as this into baseball’s current economic system would take many months to happen. Already this offseason, free agency has formally begun, eight qualifying offers have been tendered, and every club is actively in planning mode for the 2027 season. Those efforts are taking on a heightened cadence as management is expected to implement a lockout when the current labor deal expires on Dec. 1.

At that point, all player transaction activity will cease until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached.

“We recognize that clubs will need a full offseason to prepare to operate within the cap and floor system,” said MLB spokesman Glen Caplin. “Therefore, with this offseason already underway, we proposed today to begin the cap and floor system in 2028. This proposal would allow a smoother transition into the cap-and-floor system without delaying key player benefits.”

Player Response

Not surprisingly, the union blasted the league’s latest move, as it has been fervently opposed to a salary cap for decades. 

“Coming off another incredible season of baseball, MLB owners continue to propose blowing up the current system and replacing it with one designed to line their pockets and increase their franchise values,” the MLBPA said in a statement. “Despite MLB’s proposal to delay implementation to 2028, at its core, the negative impacts of the owners’ salary cap remain the same.”

The union particularly objected to what it sees as as a a major reduction in overall player compensation, the creation of a system that pits player against player in a zero-sum game, the removal of guaranteed contracts, and a “gutting” of amateur entry systems, both domestically and internationally.

Those sentiments are consistent with those conveyed by MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer during the World Series. 

“It’s not about teams not having hope. It’s about [owners] desire to have a system that artificially suppresses player salaries, player movement, and player guarantees,” Meyer said.

Bargaining Matters

The salary cap and floor is the centerpiece of several far-reaching proposals MLB owners have made in these labor negotiations, including significant restrictions on free agency, a retooled draft, and a 154-game regular season

Beyond just working the negotiating table, though, several MLB club owners have publicly stumped for a hard cap and floor, including the Brewers’ Mark Attanasio, Yankees’ Hal Steinbrenner, and White Sox’ Mat Ishbia. MLB commissioner emeritus Bud Selig has done the same thing. 

Those comments have been part of an active campaign owners have conducted to help rally public support behind their platform.

MLB, meanwhile, also said it would agree to several player proposals, including an increase in the minimum player salary to $1 million, earlier access to free agency, and an end to qualifying offers. All of that, however, is strictly in the context of implementing a salary cap.