The MLB Players Association has responded to MLB in regards to the delayed salary cap/latest proposals

posted by u/retroanduwu24 · 2026-11-04 15:42 UTC

## Top comments

1. u/AutoModerator · 2026-11-04 15:42 UTC

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2. u/TheReformedBadger · 2026-11-04 16:06 UTC

I get that this is all posturing for negotiation and players deserve to be paid, but using the term "middle class" to describe anyone playing in a league with a 780k minimum salary is completely out of touch.

3. u/GabesCaves · 2026-11-04 20:04 UTC

Think it's more applicable to look at middle class in terms of the sport. The elite top 5% players have been receiving an annual growth over the last generation of about 5% while the bottom 95% have a lower rate of growth at about 3%. Over the course of a generation that creates a huge divide in earning potential and that's the true impact of the free market that the Players champion.

Other sports have ways to Target this and they each do it differently. But it requires a partnership

4. u/Fornico · 2026-11-04 16:03 UTC

I'm not seeing the same negatives they are. None of these things sound like anything the vast majority of fans would be concerned about. In most cases their negative points would be welcomed by most fanbases.

Massive reduction in player compensation: Maybe in the top 5%. It sounds like overall things will even out with players in the bottom half getting paid better. This is especially true for players in the bottom who might only get a year or two.

Loss of player rights, including guaranteed contracts: Anthony Rendon, Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa.... All Poster children for why contracts shouldn't be fully guaranteed in the first place. They should be playing for their jobs, not what they did in the past.

Gutting of drafts: US amateur, Latin America bids, Asian Posting. The MLB draft process is an absolute nightmare system where the rich get richer as the teams with the best picks have to worry about contracts and not getting the best possible talent available. Superstar Japanese players tend to only to go the top markets. This whole system needs gutted.

Replacement of market based fundamentals with a zero sum system: This sounds like 100% lawyer talk. Players are always competing vs one another for the best contracts. No new system will change nothing.

Level the playing field for all teams. Money should not be a barrier to winning.

5. u/ManufacturerBest2758 · 2026-11-04 16:20 UTC

Cap and floor certainly doesn’t have to mean the end of guaranteed contracts, either.

6. u/Fornico · 2026-11-04 16:25 UTC

No they do not. I also think that horrible contracts like Rendon shouldn't have to cripple a franchise either. Yes it was not a great contract... but I do think if you're going to force teams to spend money, a deal where a guy takes 300 million and decides to just not try anymore should have some sort of escape hatch for the franchise.

7. u/thefan101 · 2026-11-04 23:30 UTC

Rendon had 3 surgeries including two on his hips. Typically players don't return at all after one of those hip surgeries. He kept trying to rehab. He did the opposite of deciding not to try anymore.

8. u/thefan101 · 2026-11-04 23:28 UTC

It is literally spelled out in the MLB owner's proposal. At least read what you are commenting about.

9. u/ManufacturerBest2758 · 2026-11-04 23:30 UTC

It would never, ever happen. This isn’t the NFL. At least have some idea what you’re commenting about.

10. u/Commander19119 · 2026-11-04 16:54 UTC

I don’t really see in any evidence to support the claim that only the top class of players will get a reduction in compensation. Like you look at NFL and NBA contracts and those top of the line players are still getting record deals

As for the second point, like… nobody forced those teams to sign those contracts. Nobody held at Arte Moreno at gun point and demanded he sign Anthony Rendon to that contract

11. u/Fornico · 2026-11-04 17:00 UTC

Correct. Sometimes bad contracts happen. I also don't think that guaranteed contracts are good for sports.

12. u/HyroshiBlue · 2026-11-04 17:23 UTC

As a longtime Rockies fan... Kris Bryant didn't ask for the inability to get out of bed without medication, his back fucked him. 100% not his fault, he did his best. It's unfair to compare him to the scumbag that is Anthony Rendon.

13. u/Fornico · 2026-11-04 17:51 UTC

7 years, 182 million. You still owe him 52 million for what was the going rate when you signed him.

That is the problem with today's MLB financial situation. If you want a good player and want to win you HAVE to pay for what's left of their prime and end up with the bad that comes after.

With a cap/floor, that deal likely doesn't happen because he would have stayed with the Cubs on a shorter, but still lucrative deal. Or... He gets hurt and makes less with the Cubs, or they let him go and you don't have to pay a broken player 52 million after he is forced into retirement.

Right now, the Yankees, Dodgers, or even the Phillies could just chalk that financial hit up to the cost of doing business. However, The Rockies put a lot of eggs in the Bryant basket and that contract ruined your team long term because he couldn't play.

Baseball is broken unless you have excess money to toss around

14. u/Curvemn17 · 2026-11-05 04:31 UTC

The player also earned all on the beginning so then everything that player went thru doesn't matter and they never make any money at all based on your philosophy. Guys that spent their entire lives working for that career. A career with an incredibly short shelf life and very real expiration date and in some guys case like Bryant a much sooner expiration date. But them right? Who cares what they've actually sacrificed to get here, we don't care! Bob nutting told me we could win if he didn't have to think about the ohtanis of the world

15. u/Fornico · 2026-11-05 04:43 UTC

That's weird that Bob Nutting spoke to you. Are you sure it isn't a tumor that's effecting your brain? Ya might want to get that checked out.

16. u/iceman204 · 2026-11-04 18:14 UTC

Why would players ever want to give up guaranteed contracts?

17. u/GabesCaves · 2026-11-04 18:21 UTC

They will need to give up something because this system is absurd, it's like 10 teams are in AAAA.

If it's not a cap, if it's not guaranteed contracts then there will need to be supermax contracts subject to tax, Hometown discounts subsidized by the wealthy clubs for the small clubs and other things to make this sport more reasonable.

Because MLB stands like an outlier compared to the other sports and it's a ridiculous situation. Milwaukee winning a championship does not change these basic facts

18. u/PanicNecessary5978 · 2026-11-04 21:56 UTC

What are the owners giving up?

19. u/Curvemn17 · 2026-11-05 04:28 UTC

The issue is the other leagues players want to be similar to MLB. Once you give up that leverage you have none ever again. NFL is very archaic and the only way players have any control of their future is by sitting out which sucks for them, the fans, and the teams. The NBA second apron was designed to stop super teams but is actually now hindering home grown teams more than super teams.

None of those systems actually work very well nor would transfer well over to baseball because of how the minor league development works in baseball

20. u/Fornico · 2026-11-04 18:15 UTC

They don't. That's why there is about to be a lockout.