MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on adopting a salary cap: ‘It’s hard to ignore’

Baseball

Published 29.03.2023

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on adopting a salary cap: ‘It’s hard to ignore’

While the MLBPA has taken a agency stance this it received’t settle for a wage cap, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred believes it might be essential to undertake one in an effort to obtain aggressive steadiness.

In an look on The New York Post‘s “The Show” podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman, Manfred addressed the spending hole downside the league faces.

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“We do have the issue of competitive balance and revenue disparity. I don’t think anybody on the club side has made up their mind that a salary cap is necessarily the answer,” the commissioner mentioned. “We have, over a protracted time frame, averted making a wage cap proposal, however there’s one truism, that it’s onerous to disregard.

“There are arguably … five major professional sports in North America. Four of them have one system. One of them has a different system. I’m sort of a believer in the idea that the majority eventually gets it right … and when you’re the outlier, you have to ask yourself the question of: does somebody else have this system right?”

With a CBA being reached simply final March, Manfred acknowledged that this is a matter for years down the street however did say that he and the league are making “the most aggressive effort” in speaking with the gamers since he started with MLB.

“We have a common interest with players,” he mentioned. “That common interest is really fundamental. You put the best game possible — and for me, that’s always meant the most competitive game possible — on the field.”

The wage cap dialog was sparked by a query about New York Mets proprietor Steve Cohen’s spending this low season.

Manfred addressed the positives of that spending, citing the power it brings to a fanbase in a big market like New York, but additionally mentioned the way it impacts different markets.

“The downside is, spending at that level, particularly at a level that kind of steps away from everybody else, emphasizes a problem … that is that the disparity in the revenues that are generated in our markets produces a challenge in terms of competitive balance,” Manfred mentioned.

According to Cot’s Contracts, the Mets are anticipated to have the best 26-man Opening Day payroll at $328.3 million, $272.1 million greater than the $56.2 million the Oakland Athletics are anticipated to have.

There are eight groups anticipated to have Opening Day payrolls coming in beneath $100 million, a far cry from the spending data being set in New York.

While all the eye is on Cohen and the Mets, Manfred insisted that the lower-spending groups are the main focus of MLB.

“It is a mistake to assume that the clubs or Major League Baseball are not more concerned about what happens in Cincinnati or Pittsburgh than we are about Steve Cohen,” he mentioned. “Steve Cohen did what [he] did, we’re more concerned about making sure that we have a system where Cincinnati, Oakland [and] Pittsburgh can compete reasonably.”