Selig Argues for MLB Salary Cap: ‘You Have to Make Adjustments’

MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin baseball dream that Bud Selig started more than 56 years ago is perhaps coming true, at long last, but the MLB commissioner emeritus worries about whether it might ever happen again. 

The Brewers team that Selig formed in 1970 by acquiring the Seattle Pilots franchise out of bankruptcy, moving it to Milwaukee, and then owning it for more than three decades is now on the cusp of its first World Series title. Back in the Fall Classic 44 years after the club’s only prior appearance, the Brewers come into Friday’s Game 1 with MLB’s best regular-season record, an emphatic sweep of the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, and a favored position among sportsbooks over the American League champion Rays.

“This club has done just a remarkable job, from [current Brewers owner] Mark Attanasio on down,” Selig told Front Office Sports. “It makes me proud. It makes the people of Milwaukee proud. I’m grateful, and we’re all grateful, to be here to witness such a momentous event in baseball history.

“The challenges of a small market don’t just disappear because of this, but what’s happening is such a powerful statement about what this team has done,” Selig said. 

Now 92 years old, Selig has been removed from the MLB commissioner post for nearly 12 years. He’s stayed close to the sport, though. Selig is regularly in contact with many league executives and team owners, including current commissioner Rob Manfred, and he’s been active in teaching and writing.

More pointedly, Selig has been a steady advocate for baseball adopting a hard salary cap and floor. Selig unsuccessfully sought a cap while he was the Brewers owner and then commissioner, particularly in 1994, ultimately leading a bitter labor fight with the MLB Players Association, and the early cancellation of that year’s playoffs and World Series. 

Despite the long and fractious history around management’s pursuits of a salary cap, the fervent opposition of the union, and the strong likelihood of a management lockout starting in December, Selig is undeterred. 

“You have to make adjustments. The changes that [owners] are proposing are not only rational, they’re essential,” Selig said. 

Selig’s stance puts him squarely in line with current MLB team owners, including Attanasio, Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, and White Sox co-owner Mat Ishbia—each of whom has openly lobbied this week for a cap and floor.

“Mark and I have talked at great length about all of this, so it’s not a surprise we’re of a similar mind,” he said. 

Selig will take a victory lap of sorts Friday night, as he’s scheduled to throw out the first pitch at American Family Field with Brewers icon and Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount, who the former commissioner thinks of as family. 

“I’m going to let Robin throw the pitch. I’m 92, and it’s best that he does it. But I’ll be there [for the ceremony], and it’s going to be the beginning of a great moment,” he said.