NEW YORK -- Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday acknowledged he worries that Major League Baseball's labor negotiations could lead to a long work stoppage resembling the 1994-95 players' strike that cost the league 948 regular-season games and the entire 1994 postseason.
"Of course I do," Manfred said Wednesday during the owners meetings. "We want to make an agreement. We made a proposal on one set of topics. At the outset of negotiations, I went and said myself, 'We're open to whatever ideas people have, but we need a realistic framework that addresses the fans' concerns about competitive balance.' You just can't ignore that financial penalties have not gotten it done for us."
Manfred was a junior lawyer on the owners' bargaining team in 1994. That was the last time owners formally proposed a salary cap until last week, when they responded to the MLBPA's opening proposal with a sweeping overhaul of the sport's economic structure. In it, MLB called for a firm salary cap of $245.3 million with a hard floor of $171.2 million.
The MLBPA has long opposed a salary cap, arguing that any limit on payroll spending suppresses player earnings. The union's proposal instead worked within the current competitive balance tax system that has been in place since 2003 with, among several changes, a "competitive-integrity tax" for low-spending teams that mirrors the CBT for top-spending clubs.
The current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1. If the two parties cannot negotiate a new one by then, owners are expected to lock out the players until a deal is reached. The owners instituted a lockout when the last CBA expired in December 2021. That work stoppage lasted 99 days before the sides reached an agreement in March 2022, narrowly avoiding the cancellation of regular-season games. Unlike those negotiations, owners entered this round seeking a fundamental overhaul of the sport's economic system.
"We have tried mightily over several rounds of bargaining to use a competitive balance tax to address competitive concerns," Manfred said. "And sometimes you've got to admit you failed."
MLB officials have used the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two-time defending World Series champions, to highlight the need for stronger payroll restraints. The Dodgers paid $346 million in player salaries and an additional $169 million in luxury tax penalties last season. The tax bill alone was $100 million more than the Miami Marlins' entire payroll. MLB argues a salary cap would limit an advantage the Dodgers and other high-revenue clubs, including the Yankees and Mets, hold over lower-revenue teams -- an edge that largely stems from local television contracts.
The Dodgers' 25-year, $8.35 billion local TV deal pays the team an average of $334 million per year through 2039. Currently, teams share 48% of all local revenue. In MLB's proposal, local television would be separated from other local revenue and shared evenly. Manfred said he thinks "there is unanimous support among the 30 clubs" for the measure.
"I think that the Dodgers understand there is a need to update the overall economic model in the industry and that the upside associated with that, in terms of growing the industry, growing the popularity of the sport, is big for large markets, small markets, owners and players in every way," Manfred said. "That upside is bigger than any issue that separates us in the bargaining table."