PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says he is getting emails from fans concerned over the sport's lack of a salary cap following an offseason spending spree by the Los Angeles Dodgers that sparked increased attention over the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement in December 2027.
“This is an issue that we need to be vigilant on,” Manfred said Thursday following the end of an owners' meeting. “We need to pay attention to it and need to determine whether there are things that can be done to allay those kinds of concerns and make sure we have a competitive and healthy game going forward.”
Baseball's biggest spender in 2024 won the World Series: The Dodgers had a $353 million luxury tax payroll and had to pay a $103 million tax. The Athletics had the lowest luxury tax payroll at just under $84 million.
“The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization,” Manfred said. “Everything that they do and have done is consistent with our rules. They’re trying to give their fans the best possible product. Those are all positives. I recognize, however, and my emails certainly reflect that there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their team’s ability to compete. And we always have to be concerned when our fans are concerned about something. But pinning it on the Dodgers, I’m not in that camp.”
The AL champion New York Yankees — one of baseball's biggest spenders for decades — even have concerns about where the game is going on the financial front, and how it's challenging to match the way the Dodgers can spend.
“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things that they’re doing. We’ll see if it pays off,” Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said in an interview aired Tuesday on YES Network. “They still have to have a season relatively injury-free for it to work out for them. It’s a long season as you know, and once you get to the postseason anything can happen. We’ve seen that time and time again.”
Players oppose a salary cap and fought off a proposal with a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95, leading to the cancellation of the World Series.
“The reality is salary caps don’t guarantee ‘competitive balance,'” union head Tony Clark said in a statement. "Salary caps are about ‘competitive perception.' They are about the increase in franchise values and growth of separate revenue streams that will never be to the benefit of those off the field or the fans who come to watch them play. Salary caps are ALWAYS one-sided relationship.”
New Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein said he supported a cap when he spoke with Yahoo Finance at last month’s World Economic Forum.
“I wish it would be the case that we would have a salary cap in baseball the way other sports do, and maybe eventually we will, but we don’t have that now,” he said. “I suspect we’ll probably have something closer to what the NFL and the NBA have, but there’s no guarantee of that.”
Bargaining is expected to start in the spring of 2026. U.S. sports leagues have preferred offseason lockouts to determine the timing of work stoppages rather than risk in-season strikes.
“We’re still two years away even if you’re thinking you want to bargain early,” Manfred said. “We do have things going on in terms of the economics of the game, local media being the principal one, that the longer we wait, the more it evolves, the better decisions we’re going to make.”
Manfred was questioned about the firing of umpire Pat Hoberg for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting electronic messages pertinent to the league’s investigation.
MLB opened the investigation last February when it was brought to its attention by the sportsbook, and Hoberg did not umpire last season. MLB said the investigation did not uncover evidence Hoberg personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, but MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired.
“I think that we have a much greater ability to monitor what’s going on and determine if there’s something that’s going on that shouldn’t be going on today than we did when, you know, gambling was all, you know, in backrooms and illegal," Manfred said. “It’s always a threat. We spend a lot of time and money, get a lot more information, just have access to a lot more information now that it’s legal.”
Manfred said he has the same stance as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, that one set of rules across the country for sports wagering would make more sense than the current state-by-state model.
“I do think that I may be a federalist in the broadest sense of the word," Manfred said. "I’ve always believed that a single set of rules is probably better than than going state by state.”
The Rays are playing this season at the spring training home of the New York Yankees, 11,000-seat Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, following damage caused to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off on Oct. 9. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg and government officials have not been able to close a deal for a new ballpark.
“It’s important the way I say this: I am spending a ton of time with Stu," Manfred said. “I think he’s confronted with an extraordinarily difficult situation and we’re trying to work that situation through.”
The Rays have until March 31 to commit to their stadium deal with the city of St. Petersburg. The team has voiced concern that the planned ballpark would not open until 2029 and the team doesn't want to be responsible for higher costs.
“We are always and have always been prepared to adapt, adjust and move forward if the Rays walk away from this partnership,” St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said this week in his state of the city address.
MLB is taking notice of a changed attitude toward diversity programs by the federal government since Donald Trump became president.
“Our values, particularly our values and diversity, remain unchanged," he said. "But another value that is pretty important to us is we always try to comply with what the law is. There seems to be an evolution going on here. We’re following that very carefully. Obviously, when things get a little more settled, we’ll examine each of our programs and make sure that while the values remain the same, that we’re also consistent with what the law requires.”
New York Mets chairman Steve Cohen and Athletics managing partner John Fisher were voted to the eight-man executive council, replacing Philadelphia managing partner John Middleton and Kansas City chairman John Sherman. The council also includes Arizona managing general partner Ken Kendrick and Seattle chairman John Stanton (whose terms expire in 2026), San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson and Cleveland chairman Paul Dolan (2027) and Miami chairman Bruce Sherman and Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno (2028).
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