MLB stars address salary cap, owners saying baseball is broken ahead of All-Star Game: 'Bad for the game'
Major League Baseball is the last remaining big US sport that doesn't have a salary cap, and if you ask some of baseball's best players, it's clear they want to keep it that way.
MLB's owners have united over the past few months, spurred on by criticism of the Los Angeles Dodgers and their willingness to try and win more games than the opposition, in pushing for one. The league has posted misleading graphics on their social media platforms in order to promote that view. They've told fans that the sport they buy tickets for is broken and beyond repair, unless owners are allowed to limit what they spend on payroll.
In a season where competitive balance is on full display, they've advertised that small market teams have little-to-no hope of winning a World Series. So how do the players feel about commissioner Rob Manfred and the New York office telling them that baseball is broken? Well, at the media days ahead of the 2026 All-Star Game, several of them got a chance to answer.
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Sportico asked several stars at media days their feelings on a salary cap and the owners' negotiating strategy. Turns out, they don't like it.
"I think it's bad for the game," said Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout. "The game's in a great spot right now, you know, I just don't support that."
"I think if the billionaires are wanting it, you know, they're the billionaires for a reason, and they want to continue to enhance their portfolios as much as possible," added Yankees outfielder and former MVP Cody Bellinger. "And us players understand that, and so the answer to your question is no good."
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Toronto Blue Jays reliever Louis Varland, whose team lost to the big-spending Dodgers in the 2025 World Series, was even more direct, giving a one word answer: "Bad."
Tigers outfielder Riley Greene said he wouldn't comment, but his teammate, catcher Dillon Dingler, had a simple, "Bad. Bad," answer.
Dodgers star Max Muncy, at the center of the storm, brought up an interesting point from the players' perspective. "The biggest thing for me is every other league has a cap," he said. "And not one of those players like it. So why would we agree to something that no other player likes?"
That's the oft-ignored point that some fans miss. Salary caps are not popular with players, anywhere. Because it arbitrarily limits their earning potential. That is not how any other industry functions. If say, Apple wants to hire an important tech executive from Google, they can do so by offering more money than other companies. Their only limitation is the amount of money they have available to spend. If OpenAI swoops in and offers double, they can do so. That's how capitalism and competition works.
"I think it's bad for everyone, I think it's even bad for the teams, bad for the players, bad for everyone," Reds All-Star Sal Stewart said. "So, yeah, I'm not in favor."
While others said they weren't sure about it, or viewed themselves as "uneducated" on a potential cap, the overwhelming reaction is that it's bad for baseball.
On the league's side, Manfred said ahead of the All-Star Game that the "Level the Field" ad campaign pushing the cap to fans is designed to "keep fans informed," then accused the players of being inaccurate with their comments while ignoring the campaign's own inaccuracies.
"I think when you have a difficult public issue, particularly when the other side of the issue is being very public about what their views are on the negotiation, I think it's incumbent on us to keep our fans informed of our view of the world," Manfred explained on Tuesday ahead of the All-Star Game. "Particularly given sometimes the other side may not be completely accurate or fair in terms of their recitation of what's going on."
MLBPA Chief Bruce Meyer shot back, per ESPN, saying, "I have watched over the last two years [how] the owners, the commissioner's office, try to convince fans, the consumers of their product, that the product is broken. I think it's perverse. Case in point is leading up to this All-Star Game, any of us who watch baseball ... are seeing ads not so much for the All-Star Game, not promoting the game, not promoting the players, [but] promoting the league's desire for a salary cap."
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He has a point. The league has used total spending, including luxury tax payments, to highlight the disparity in total expenditures between the Dodgers and Marlins. Ignoring that those luxury tax penalties are redistributed to teams like the Marlins. Then Marlins ownership pockets that money, instead of reinvesting it into the on field product, as they are supposed to do. Manfred turns a blind eye, because he works for the owners, and then pushes graphics about how big the disparity is.
Instead of celebrating what a fantastic spot the game is in right now, it's doom and gloom because the league's owners are looking to increase their profits. And again, they couldn't have picked a worse season to make this argument. The Rays are in first place by three games over the Yankees. The big market Blue Jays are in last. The White Sox and Guardians are fighting for a postseason bye, while the big market LA Angels are tied for the worst record in the American League. The Tigers, who have by far the highest payroll in their division, are 44-52 and likely to miss the postseason.
If the season ended today, the Marlins, despite their profound indifference to winning or losing, would be in the playoffs. The two teams chasing them? The Cardinals and Pirates, while the big market Giants and $370 million Mets are buried. Meanwhile, Milwaukee is once again steamrolling the competition on their way to a bye.
Much of this is negotiating tactics, but despite the league's protestations, there's never been less need for a salary cap than there is today. And players get it.