The World Series is under way between Major League Baseball’s 21st and 24th largest markets, but don’t expect that to quiet owner demands for a salary cap.
Baseball’s labor contract expires December 1, and management is expected to immediately lock out the players. That work stoppage could threaten the start of spring training workouts on February 9 and opening day on March 24.
As was the case in 1994, when a player strike resulted in the cancellation of the World Series, the owners are still pushing the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) to accept a salary cap – something the union has described as a nonstarter for decades.
Owners, through league commissioner Rob Manfred, have argued that the economics of baseball prevent most teams from being competitive without a salary cap, while union head Bruce Meyer has pointed to the success of the small-market Brewers and Rays to argue against a cap.
‘I think it shows that we leave a lot on the table in some of our smaller markets by not having them have an opportunity to compete on a regular basis,’ Manfred said on the field Friday before Game 1 of the World Series between Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays. ‘The Brewers have been a well-run franchise forever. It’s been 40 years since we’re here. Once every 40 years is not enough.’
Since all of management’s proposals are tied to a cap, Meyer claimed ‘the rest of it is a charade.’ Those proposals have included granting some players free agency a year sooner, shortening seasons to 154 games and adding postseason games.
Chandler Simpson of the Tampa Bay Rays runs to first after singling during the first inning
Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski points during the first inning on Friday in Milwaukee
‘This would be a tough negotiation even without their demand for the nuclear bomb of the salary cap,’ Meyer said.
‘This notion that the owners need a cap and that a cap would somehow guarantee this utopia of competitive balance and fan engagement, it’s just not true. It makes no sense at all,’ he added. ‘We should be appreciating and promoting the things that we have now instead of trying to tear it down.’
Milwaukee ranked 19th in payroll as of August 31 and Tampa Bay 25th. The Brewers, in the Series for the first time since 1982, are seeking their first title, as are the Rays.
‘It is kind of sad that the league and the owners have once again been focusing not on the greatness of the game, not on the greatness of the players, not on the greatness of the playoffs, but they’ve been focusing on basically telling the consumers of their product that their product is broken,’ Meyer said.
MLB proposed a salary cap in 1994, and it led to a 7 1/2-month strike that caused the World Series to be canceled for the first time in 90 years.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred speaks with the media prior to Game 1 in Milwaukee
Bruce Meyer, interim director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, speaks
‘Number one, we have an unprecedented level of unanimity among ownership that this is something that we need to do, that we need to get ourselves in a position to operate like all the other major professional sports in North America,’ Manfred said.
‘Secondly, and even more importantly to me, our fan polling, and we do it regularly, has moved hard in the direction of the fact that we have a problem and that our fans see a salary cap as the answer to that problem.’
Meyer dismissed the argument that a cap would benefit competitive balance.
‘All of this is really about their desire to make more money in the form of profits and increased franchise values, which they don’t have to share with players,’ he said.
‘It’s not about competitive balance. It’s not about teams not having hope. It’s about, again, their desire, which they’ve had for decades, to have a system that artificially suppresses player salaries and player freedom of movement, removes player guarantees and limits flexibility in all different areas, guts the amateur entry system. The rest of it is a charade.’
