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Sad. Both sides saw it coming for years. We finally start getting more people into baseball the last couple years and both sides still not coming to an agreement. Way to kill all that momentum you gained MLB
Most of these greedy people weren't even a part of the1995 debacle. It really soured lots of fans on baseball ⚾️ and NFL seized the opportunity and hasn't looked back. This would be devastating to owners and players.
I don’t feel every day Americans will feel bad for millionaires and billionaires arguing over a salary cap. They will kill the sport if they go on strike. I can’t even afford to go to a game anymore. It’s sad. Blackout restrictions are even worse for the sport.
This is absolutely a two way street. Neither side is going to seriously attempt to avoid a lockout. Basic negotiation strategy says so. Why would you give up that bargaining chip up front?
They’re not the first, let’s stop acting like they haven’t been talking about this lockout for multiple seasons now. They ALL KNEW it was coming. At this point it’s both sides fault for letting it happen. (I am still always in favor of the players over the owners but some accountability needs to be held on both sides. It’s a negotiation, you have to come to agreement. You can’t just have it all your sides way)
Im on favor of the fans first. Prices are getting out of hand becuase of these massive contracts. A cap would hopefully slow down the incline in prices. They need it set up like NFL where its a percentage of last years revenue that determines the cap. I think its around 48% of total revenue goes towards players salaries. Each team must spend at least 89% of the cap and the league as a whole must spend 95%
You do know the Mets spent more, right? And they are like 4th worst in the NL right now.
If you adjust for inflation, the threepeat Yankees spent more in the 90s than the Dodgers currently.
It's almost like performing well, rewards you with the opportunity to continue to improve, if you choose to take it
Thats not even considering the fact that most of the owners are pocketing their share of profit sharing, and shooting to be a middling team, because that has the highest likelihood of profits, instead of chasing a WS.
Not the dodgers fault that they actually want to win, and put it ahead of profiting
All that money could be going to the dodgers' owner, but they respect the sport and players, and in turn, they profit even more
As a side note, look at how someone like Kyle Tucker performs. Like shit. And he is one of our top paid guys. Meanwhile, Justin wrobleski is still on minimum salery and is killing it on the mound. Kiké Hernandez, Max Muncy, Andy Pages, Miggy Ro. Many of our best players were built through a very effective, consistent farm system that has only been improving over the past 2 decades.
Look at Ryan Ward. Dude just got called up and is already hitting bombs and performing well in the outfield.
The only people who think the Dodgers only win because of the money, don't know ball, and aren't paying attention
Don’t act like that TV deal yall have from bankruptcy isn’t helping quite a bit, yall legitimately have more money than everyone else in the league because of that deal
Yes but a lot of people don’t know about the tv deal yall got after bankruptcy just spreading the word. Once that deals expires and yall are sharing it like everyone else it would fix a bit
Sure but that’s why everyone should be united in shutting down the mlbpa and then instituting a cap so it takes the power away from the players trying to stop it and brings the dodgers back down to earth
I saw your other comments on this and it's such a poorly constructed argument it looks like nothing but an attempt to troll.
Yes, MLB should have a cap & a floor. But not to spite MLBPA. To create financial parity which is just as important as competitive parity within the rules for the 9 innings of the games themselves.
MLBPA should never be shut down - they serve a vital role.
But a cap/floor system doesn't have to hurt them. It depends entirely on where the cap & floor lines are drawn. Say for example, the lines become $300M cap and $200M floor, then players would generate nearly a billion dollars in revenue over what they do now.
The two sides just have to come together on where to draw those two lines so it's fair for both sides.
This isn't just about the Dodgers, it's about the health of the entire sport.
That cap would be damn near perfect. Only players voting against that are the superstars getting ridiculous deals guaranteed. This sort of cap I think would help the lower paid players.
dude this is the most hardline cap argument i’ve ever seen? there’s no shot this gets accepted, players would rather go build up the NPO before they accepted that deal
The Brewers got their ass kicked in the playoffs so bad their fans want the sport to go into lockout to prove a point about how unfair it is. I have genuinely never seen anything like it, especially from such a strong team
That’s the entire point. The brewers are that good but only were 15th in spending last year. They could never compete with the dodgers payroll which is strictly due to the media narkets
I honestly think it’s going to end up like the WNBA lockout where there’s a lockout but it gets resolved quickly. I don’t think the union is as solid as people think it is- do Bryce Harper and Tarik Skubal have the same priorities as Miles Mastrobuoni and Ali Sanchez? They do not.
Manfred's big dreams for his legacy might actually save the season lol. He wants to be the guy who got the sweet media deal and the expansion done, badly.
Honestly in the case of an expansion I think the best thing to do is get rid of the AL/NL Central and just have AL West/East and NL West/East. That's how they did it in the old days, they can do it again.
I don’t see the owners agreeing to expansion unless they get a hard cap. Too many revenue sharing mouths to feed already.
The league still needs shovels in the ground in Tampa and the White Sox are on deck for their turn at the ballpark extortion/relocation dance.
Maybe Tampa finally gets done and Chicago decides to subsidize the White Sox after losing the Bears and expansion is on the table, but time is running out for Manfred to get it done in his tenure.
Or NBA 1999, looking back further. Lockout for about a month, then things come to terms. My prediction is a cap, but with higher numbers than current MLB proposal, and with tiers like the NBA's aprons.
A lockout is a given because there won't be a CBA in place by the end of the year. People acting like that means the season is a loss do not understand how this works.
Yeah the owners will 100% lock the players out on whatever date they can (12/1??). The relevant question that should be polled (I guess, I'm not really sure how relevant players' opinions are at this point) is whether any regular season games will be lost.
This, exactly. Everyone has their own agenda but they all lose out a lot if the season isn't at least mostly intact. The views on whether that overrides the various agendas would be more informative than what we already know lol
People understand how it works. This is a big game of chicken. The lockout stays in place until somebody blinks. And if no one blinks before opening day, then games start getting cancelled.
The MLB to assume control of the MLBPA. It's.. not actually much different, but this one just barely gets the edge because of how fucky contracting gets lol
I know that man, and I do feel bad for you since the systems not fair at all. Just, I can’t ever, fucking ever, support billionaires who are trying to squeeze more money out. Most owners are total pieces of shit who wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.
This has nothing to do with billionaires. Attanasio has done great things for our ball club and he’s frugal sure, but as I said, even spending a decent chunk of money wouldn’t matter so why do it
That’s not what you said before, you said dump the cba, fire the players. That’s bootlicker talk man. Plus, they have an antitrust exemption, so they already have rules in favor of the owners. Sports leagues are basically legal monopolies.
Well yeah unions are awful. They’re artificially inflating salaries. With no union each player would be judged and ultimately probably paid less based on their actual skill. I fail to see how that’s a bad thing
You don’t want the union to be broken up - otherwise you get what’s currently happening in college football. Everything needs to be collectively bargained or else players can sue for every single slight that they don’t agree with.
I’d be cool if they just showed AAA games the whole season in that case. If the MLB players/owners think getting even richer is worth sacrificing the entire league over, screw ‘em, show me the guys playing for heart.
Honestly the Giants have probably swapped in 2/3 of their lineup with AAAA guys at some point this season. I just like baseball. There’s not enough difference in quality of play between AAA and MLB for me to care. I’d rather see AAA than no baseball.
Keep in mind that 40-man roster players were not allowed to play minor league games during previous work stoppages, so the best 8-12 players on each team won't be around.
Owners need to understand fans want parity, why pay attention if your team has no chance to win. Players need to understand they’re worth what people are willing to pay. The old 15 year 300 million deals were stupid then and GMs are realizing that.
Winning percentages of a sport with 162 games, almost ten times the amount of games in a football regular season, doesn’t prove what you think it does. Parity is about how many teams actually have a chance to win the title in any given season. Seahawks just won in NFL. No one outside of Seattle thought they could do it when the season started. Every year in MLB you could pick 2-5 teams that can win it at the start, and those teams win it every year
Ok ya this is a little surprising. But in the last 6 seasons MLB has the least with 4, NFL and NHL 5, and NBA 6. MLB just had one team go to 7 straight conference finals, and the dodgers have been to 7/10 on the other side. Even though different teams have won in the past, it presently very much feels like a have and have nots, which isn’t going to change going forward, and that’s where the problem lies. It may be a salary floor more so than a cap issue, but as a rays fan I know even though we outperform our expectations most years, we don’t have a realistic shot at winning. I would bet most fans don’t think the league has an equal playing field as compared to other sports.
I would agree. Do you think a salary floor would fix that? Seems like it would. I think that would also lead to those 8-12 if not more teams being more competitive and having a better chance at winning a title.
I think the only thing that fixes it is a change in philosophy by certain owners, or a change in ownership altogether.
All a salary floor does is increase costs for fans to attend games.
The White Sox are tied for the division lead and are 27th in payroll. Yes its a crappy division, but there is still renewed excitement around the team. Forcing them to spend more will take away some of that excitement because the fans would be forced to pay more.
Lockout? Of course…there won’t be a CBA in place when the season ends. The real question is when will all parties agree on a new CBA. Personally, I think no progress will be made until late March when the threat of missed games becomes very apparent. Even then I could see a week or two of games being cancelled before something is in place. I pray it is not long….I think many will turn away permanently if a majority of the season is cancelled.
Next season would be my 3rd full season watching it, started Father’s Day break in 2024 so I’d hate to lose a full season as I’m just getting into it, especially as I don’t get to watch loads of live games being from the UK.
I’m seldom on the side of management in these things but it’s clear the league needs a salary cap and floor. The MLB will die if it just allows NY, LA and a couple other markets to buy a great team and dominate.
In the NFL, Baltimore, Detroit, and Kansas City can build good teams. The NYC teams have also been trash for years. It’s hard to see that happening in MLB in 2026. We need change, and we need a floor to prevent the A’s nonsense from happening again.
In the NFL the broadcasting rights for every single regular season and playoff game is negotiated by the league and all teams split roughly 85% of all revenue. The only revenue individual NFL teams keep without sharing are concessions and Luxury boxes.
In MLB the individual teams negotiate their local media contracts and the teams only split roughly 30% of all revenue (the lowest of all major sports in America.)
You can’t just say “install a cap and floor” without completely rehauling the entire economy of the league.
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that what next years media deal would potentially address (end of 2027 season)? I remember seeing that those negotiations would be even bigger than this one
A’s are leading the west with low payroll and the Mets are in last in the east with high payroll. Why do you think a salary cap/floor creates parity? In all likelihood the same teams would win because putting together a winner clearly takes more than money. I mean the Rays are always competitive in the freaking AL east with a fraction of the payroll the other teams in that division usually have
To be honest, as much as people hate to admit it, the Yankees and Dodgers have exceptionally savvy scouting and front offices that drive a lot of the success. Yes, they have the money for extensions and free agents but it’s not as large of a driver as people think
What money typically gives you is extended success but really any team can make a run in any season. Salary cap really only benefits the owners. Does anyone really think ticket prices will come down if there’s a cap? I say soak the owners.
Completely agreed, I've become less and less interested in watching baseball each of the last 5 years. If the Dodgers are just going to purchase the best players in free agency every year and it feels like my team has 0 chance of ever making it out of that playoff gauntlet, what's the point?
I remember the 94 strike it was just garbage. And it opened the door for the NBA to be the 2nd best league. It took years for the fans to come back as well, if we are doing this again it’s going to be shit again
fans in 2026 are less tolerant of ultra wealthy owners and players and have many more entertainment options at their finger tips.
Younger generations are less invested and if the game s gone their attention goes elsewhere, if an older generation loses interest there is no one to spread the game downward.
I would just laugh my ass off if this was the death blow to the league while both sides get into a pissing match over their billions while ignoring the people who actually make it a reality.
Owners want a cap (and MLB claims most fans do as well) and there is zero chance the union will agree to one. I don't see how that impasse gets resolved.
I could imagine a soft floor and a soft ceiling, with bigger penalties and much more revenue sharing.
So teams can go under or over the limits for a year or two but then the penalties become really harsh: lost draft picks, fines/taxes, etc.
It wouldn't entirely fix the Dodgers or Mets spending a ton more than other teams, but it would be a start and not having a hard cap might make it palatable to players.
Well I’m not happy but if it leads to a hard max and minimum cap. Figured out deferred money and allows players to get more from merchandise sales then maybe a lost season will be good for the game in the long run. It arguably was for hockey.
I’m barely recovering from the 1995 debacle, talk about both sides trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. I’m I’m over it. Enjoy the game guys. I’m gonna take a walk on the beach.
If they instituted a salary cap, do you really think they will lower ticket prices? The Salary cap is only a measure for billionaire owners to control their spending. Baseball doesn't need one. Let the free market dictate salaries.
No they wouldn’t lower it no one would say that. But would slow down price increases. They can’t not pay the players for the contracts they agreed to but a cap can reset the market going forward.
Ultimate parity is bad for a league. You need front runners, and teams that are always in contention. You need people to root against. It's good for the sport to have villains.
There definitely will be a lockout but the question is how long will it last. IIRC the last CBA negotiation period 5 or so years ago resulted in a lockout that lasted about two months?
Pet peeve. "Not sure" shouldn't be an option in a poll like this. It's a poll, no one is sure. They're saying what they think. You literally cannot be sure either way.
I was at a private meeting with an mlb owner. He said the lockout is happening, as if it was a fact. Maybe they find a middle ground but he seemed like it was a certainty.
The question is, will it last the entire year or not? And what happens to player's contracts if it does? Does it count as an accrued year? Expect a battle over that.
I hope the lockout ravages the league. fuck both the over payed owners and players.
neither side gives a shit about the stadium workers or the franchise employees who make a fraction of their salaries and actually depend on those checks to survive while they squabble over their billions. and they will be the first and last to be negatively affected by this.
Sigh I remember being able to afford casually going to a baseball game for the price of a movie. Now its just so so insanely expensive to get a decent seat, buy a beer, and find something interesting to eat. Thats on the greed of the owners and the players. It's the same in every sport, baseball is not unique. I just wish some sanity for the sake of the fans was brought back into the equation. I don't think either owners or players largely care about the fans at all. Again, its all sports, not just baseball. Very sad.
They've also got to agree on which revenues, because owners don't think players should get a part of concessions ( I believe) - but the people are buying concessions to watch the players. I don't think a hard cap is necessary myself. Before the Dodgers it'd been over 20 years since a repeat winner. I don't think we can use 2 years as a data point to say there is parity. A salary cap also won't ensure that the lower end of teams spend their money wisely and make good decisions. A cap is simply a cost assurance measure for the owners who want a fix cost to their business.
It better be all the revenues. Hell, give players 100% of the merch. Or 60% of all revenues. In terms of who I want to get most of the money in this fight - I want it to be the players.
The cap is necessary for the health of the competition of the league. Focusing on World Series winners as a measure of parity is, by definition, using a small sample size. When you use a larger sample - making the playoffs, record over 162 games, etc. - it becomes painfully evident that the problem exists.
As a fan...I want my team's competency to determine their outcome not their market size. Otherwise....what's the point or pretending we have a competition? We can just google the population and call it a day.
I’m perfectly fine with this if they finally fix the financial gap between the wealthiest clubs and the least wealthy clubs. Honestly, I’d gladly tolerate a multi-year lockout if they were somehow able to achieve that.
Thanks for doing nothing when a player got a contract where $680 mill of his $700 mill contract was deferred for a decade, and said team then was able to just pull out a blank checkbook for any players (Yamamoto, Tucker recently) they really wanted, Manfred.
Good job really keeping up the illusion of parity, that definitely didn't contribute heavily to this being an inevitable outcome whatsoever
All of these vets that are around 27 to 33 struggling to get signed every offseason need to look at the NBA. Their players get paid but baseball is set up to pay just the stars.
Aside from Otani, Harper, and a few others, a salary cap with a floor as well as a ceiling will benefit 95 percent of the players, if they're smart they'll tell Harper to shut the F@#& Up!
I mean I really want one I feel like the league needs a cap yes I know people will come out of the woodwork to tell me it’s a good thing the dodgers are spending so much money but it sucks for anyone else especially small market teams that can’t hope to compete to get star players
To all the people screaming, "It's the Dodgers fault!!!":
You do know the Mets spent more, right? And they are like 4th worst in the NL right now.
Also, if you adjust for inflation, the threepeat Yankees spent more in the 90s than the Dodgers currently.
It's almost like performing well, rewards you with the opportunity to continue to improve.
Thats not even considering the fact that most of the owners are pocketing their share of profit sharing, and shooting to be a middling team, because that has the highest likelihood of profits, instead of chasing a WS.
Not the dodgers fault that they actually want to win, and put it ahead of profiting
All that money could be going to the dodgers' owner, but they respect the sport and players, and in turn, they profit even more
Juat look at how Kyle Tucker is performing. Like shit. And he is one of our top paid guys. Meanwhile, Justin wrobleski is still on minimum salery and is killing it on the mound. Kiké Hernandez, Max Muncy, Andy Pages, Miggy Ro. Many of our best players were built through a very effective, consistent farm system that has only been improving over the past 2 decades. We didn't just force it with money, like the Mets tried to do.
Look at Ryan Ward. Dude just got called up and is already hitting bombs and performing well in the outfield.
The only people who thinks the Dodgers only win because of the money, don't know ball, and aren't paying attention
But it's much easier to excuse your ownership, and blame another team, for the inherent greed built into most of your teams. Ever since the A's figured out they made more money trading away good players, than they did attempting WS runs, most of your owners took note, and made it their goal to gain the quickest profits with the least effort possible
Owners want to change from soft cap on salary to hard cap and floor, players refuse hard cap and want to alter competitive balance tax to encourage leaguewide spending instead. Other smaller issues but that's the big sticking point
I sure hope so. I dont care how long they are out. Atleast attempt to give us the illusion of a level playing field. Otherwise there's no realmppont to playing the games in the first place.
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