Major League Baseball Proposes Delaying Salary Cap Start Until 2028 in Talks with Players
MLB said a 2028 cap would give clubs a full offseason to prepare while preserving earlier free agency and a $1 million minimum salary.
- On Tuesday, Major League Baseball proposed delaying the salary cap implementation until 2028, setting a hard cap of $258.2 million and a mandatory floor of $180.2 million to give teams adequate preparation time.
- Facing significant commitments for the upcoming season, teams require more time to adjust spending, prompting the league's proposed delay to avoid disrupting free agent negotiations amid uncertain labor conditions.
- Compared to initial targets, the league's latest proposal increases the ceiling by $12.9 million and the floor by $9 million; half of the 30 teams spent less than the proposed $180.2 million floor in 2026.
- Union officials warn that players could lose more than $1 billion under the proposal, as the MLB Players Association continues to firmly object to any salary cap mechanism.
- With the current collective bargaining agreement expiring on December 1, tensions between owners and the union suggest a potential work stoppage is looming, creating significant uncertainty for the 2027 season.
85 Articles
85 Articles
Major League Baseball's New Salary Cap Proposal Is As Shady As Its Old One
In the lead-up to an inevitable springtime lockout, Major League Baseball has revised the salary cap-and-floor plan it first proposed back in July. The significance of these details is different from sports leagues that already have salary caps, where the numbers are the point. In MLB the fight concerns whether a salary cap will exist at all, with ownership offering up version after version of what a cap could resemble, and players ostensibly de…
New York. The Major Leagues of Baseball (MLB) proposed to delay the start of a salary cap until 2028, noting that teams have too many commitments for the next season that would not allow them to reduce spending as quickly as necessary.
MLB proposes delaying salary cap start
NEW YORK — Major League Baseball proposed delaying the start of a salary cap until 2028, saying teams have too many commitments for next season that wouldn’t allow them to reduce spending quickly enough. A day after the start of free agent negotiations for the 2026-27 offseason, owners on Tuesday proposed to players the sport adopt a hard cap of $258.2 million for 2028 and a floor of $180.2 million, using luxury tax payrolls with average annual …
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 48% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
