It's finally time for MLB to institute a salary cap and salary floor system

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]The Major League Baseball owners have made a cap proposal, a salary cap. Yes, they are truly proposing a salary cap for the first time since 1994 where obviously there was the strike, no World Series, it took years to bring fans back until the home run race of '98 with McGuire and Sosa.

[00:00:22]We don't need a history lesson. The fact is the future could be significantly impacted if this does happen. Major League Baseball proposing a salary cap of 245.3 million, but when we were in the gym yesterday, Donnie, and this news originally broke, what made me go whoa and thought was insanely eye-popping because it'd be very beneficial for baseball if it happens, a salary floor of 171.2 million dollars.

[00:00:56]>> And I thought and I I I think the something important to note there because we've talked about the penalties that are on both sides if you either spend too much or too little.

[00:01:08]I thought Pony actually brought up a really good point yesterday on the show in the afternoon and I know the morning show was talking about this earlier today.

[00:01:18]This would have to be something that Bob Nutting is in approval of which means he would be somebody presumably willing to spend up to the 170 million dollars. That is a good thing for us as Pirates fans.

[00:01:36]>> This is a great thing if this would actually happen. Now, this is one of those first negotiations, uh of course, and what's going to be a long, drawn-out 10-month, if not maybe maybe 10 months.

[00:01:50]This is going to take a while. The games are in jeopardy next year. We've known this. We're going to continue to say it because right now it's the truth and both sides are pretty far off. Because the union continues to say, "We don't want a salary cap." And Major League Baseball is finally pushing for it and I think going to push for it as hard as ever before.

[00:02:12]That the sport ever has. But, you know, so if this would happen, it would include a 50/50 split in revenues. It would be more in line with what is done in the NBA, the NFL. And a big part of this would be revenue sharing.

[00:02:31]The new TV contracts that are coming up in 2028, this would be obviously a year earlier.

[00:02:37]But, it would be more universal like the NFL. Where right now 40% of TV revenue is shared. Everything would be shared.

[00:02:45]So, all that money that the Dodgers are making on their TV revenue with 5 million people in LA and all the money that the Yankees making TV revenue in Atlanta and other, you know, large markets that are able to Toronto, think about that. They have all Canada watching them.

[00:03:04]It's all shared just like the NFL money is. This would make it a much more balanced system.

[00:03:10]I'll let you react to that, Donny, before I have one huge question.

[00:03:13]>> Well, in that to me, that feels like it has to be that that's the only thing that makes this even remotely possible to get over the finish line. Not not that it will.

[00:03:23]This is the very first proposal on each side and all of these will be highly publicized as time goes on and the the CBA expires on the 1st of December. I mean, and again, this is something that I think people can relate to really in any field when you get down to negotiations. I mean, we are going through that first hand right now. I mean, that's just like what what happens in any line of work. If you're in some sort of of union.

[00:03:56]The revenue sharing thing to me is the thing that can sweeten the pot here.

[00:04:03]That could make this doable. But even even then, I think this is going to get pretty ugly and pretty nasty.

[00:04:11]And the players are I don't think the players are ever going to go for a cap.

[00:04:19]Now, I >> I I tend to agree with you on that. But things that could change it.

[00:04:26]How quickly do you get to arbitration?

[00:04:29]How many years of arbitration are there?

[00:04:31]Right now, you have six, potentially seven years of club control for a player.

[00:04:36]Does that get reduced by a year? Does Major League Baseball say, "Okay, we'll control your rights for 5 years." which also, you know, could be six depending on when a player is called up.

[00:04:48]And we will give you double or maybe even triple pre-arbitration money, which right now it's right around like $900,000.

[00:04:55]The proposed money was 1.5 million. What if that goes up to two?

[00:05:00]So, you make your Major League debut, you're making $2 million.

[00:05:04]That'd be more than a lot of other sports for players that come up that you know, maybe aren't like first-round draft picks or like highly regarded players that sign for X amount of money.

[00:05:16]>> Yeah, and that that's usually how these things go where you have to get a little bit creative, find other ways where hey, if we if we take this away, here is another way for you to be incentivized. Really. Like here's another avenue where you can make money.

[00:05:32]>> The proposal Okay. It it would also include a 50/50 split of revenues with players as well as all revenue from local media centralized and then shared equally. So, as revenue continues to go up, the cap number continues to go up. And I think it's kind of ludicrous that players think that this is going to cap their potential earnings.

[00:05:52]Like No, it No, it's not. As the more money that comes into the game, the more inflation that comes up, the more that the cap is going to go up.

[00:06:01]Like try telling that to NFL players.

[00:06:04]Tell that to T.J. Watt making 41 million. Tell that to Dak Prescott making 50 million as a quarterback. Look at some of these outrageous contracts that are being handed out in the NBA.

[00:06:14]>> Right. It It It can certainly be done.

[00:06:17]>> You're going to make your money.

[00:06:18]>> It can certainly be done. It It just It just has been such like the the the system has been in place for so long, and players have never gone for it. It just feels like baseball is the lone one where the players will never give that the okay.

[00:06:38]>> I could >> feel I have.

[00:06:40]>> I think if they drag it out long enough that it could happen. Like I'm maybe a little bit more optimistic than others.

[00:06:45]But, here's my big question to you, Donny.

[00:06:48]What side do you fall on? Because I find it very hard to take the player side on this. And like usually, like I'm typically always on the player side.

[00:07:00]Like I see ownership's perspective in some occurrences, too.

[00:07:03]I am fully with the owners on this. And this is for a better future for baseball. This is for a better economic chance for small markets to compete. Sure, Milwaukee's good every year, and Tampa Bay's good every year. What are they winning when they go to the playoffs? That's what matters. That's why we critique the Steelers so much for not winning in the playoffs. We don't care about their regular seasons and going 10 and 7 every year when they go to the playoffs and do nothing. Like the Rays other than one year going to the World Series and losing, Milwaukee going to the NLCS, they're not winning World Series. You might say that there's this great competitive balance around baseball. It's a regular season thing. When you go to the playoffs, the Dodgers are winning World Series, Atlanta's won one, Toronto was just in the World Series, the Yankees was in the world were in the World Series 2 years ago. Big money talks when you get to the playoffs. Sure, there's outsider or there's there's anomalies like the Mets that are playing really bad right now.

[00:07:59]Or the Angels when they had Trout and Ohtani and they just couldn't put it together. Smart organizations can make things work.

[00:08:05]But if you want to talk about player retention more than anything, if this system went through in 2027, I think there's a decent chance that the Pirates can keep Paul Skenes.

[00:08:17]I really do.

[00:08:19]The 171 million? You're right now at 104?

[00:08:23]50 million to Paul Skenes right now, you keep Brandon Lowe, you let Ozuna's money walk, and you sign two bullpen arms, you're at 170 right now and you're a competitive team that can make the playoffs.

[00:08:33]>> Yeah, it makes me optimistic about what the Pirates team could actually look like on a year-to-year basis. Now, that being said, that that bar gets set for everybody.

[00:08:44]So, that even means teams like the Marlins who right now are spending under 80 million dollars on their team, they would also have to spend up to that line. It would make for a more competitive hot stove season, you know, more competitive free agency because it wouldn't just be a foregone conclusion that, you know, the big four teams and really the Dodgers have been a the the worst example of them all where they get pretty much all the stars at this point and then the Yankees will get some, the Mets will get some, you know, slide the the Red Sox and the Cubs in there. You get what I'm saying.

[00:09:21]It makes it a little bit more competitive in that sense. I I really I want to find the side of the players, but because we've been wanting this for so long, I'm on the the side of the owners here.

[00:09:36]And I think it also comes back to even though I'm not necessarily like shaking the hands and high-fiving the billionaire owners in baseball, when it's all said and done, it's more about the actual team that I will follow and be a fan of.

[00:09:52]Players come and go.

[00:09:54]>> Yes.

[00:09:55]>> The team that I follow and I'm a fan of will stay the same for the rest of time.

[00:10:01]>> And it's also consistency, too, Donnie.

[00:10:03]Like, when you say the Pirates need to maximize this window with Paul Skenes cuz you know you can't keep him. Imagine having that conversation with Sidney Crosby. That's why the NHL went dark for a year.

[00:10:13]Like, Sidney Crosby might be playing in LA or New York or maybe he would have joined Toews and Kane in Chicago.

[00:10:20]You know you know, maybe Crosby's not the best example because he's such a great team guy, but you get the point. Does Josh Allen say stay in Buffalo if this is the MLB?

[00:10:29]No.

[00:10:30]And sports is supposed to be you find a star, you draft them, you develop them, they get embraced in your community like Skenes has done, and you do everything in your power to retain that star. The Pirates have no chance to do that right now with Skenes by the way that the economic system is set up in baseball. None.

[00:10:47]>> Yeah, it would be nice to have a sport have a change where once they do get a player like that, the immediate immediate response from the cynics is "Well, he'll be a Yankee or a Dodger in a few years."

[00:11:02]Because that's what happens every time with the Pirates or with any other like rinky-dink looking small-market team.

[00:11:09]They get a star player and it's the same thing every time. So, that would be a nice change.