Subscribe
Follow Us
Major League Baseball is just past the halfway point in the regular season. As the league gears up to hold the All-Star Weekend festivities, a bigger issue is looming. The league and the MLB Players' Association are discussing a potential salary cap. MLBPA Executive Directors Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer wanted to send players a message.
Players renegotiating contracts during the season is not uncommon. Chicago Cubs All-Star outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is doing so right now. However, those conversations change drastically if a salary cap is put into place. Across the history of sports with salary caps, leagues face holdouts from their players when their teams' owners try to change the rules.
Under a salary cap, even more money would go to the owners, according to Meyer. While Clark faces an investigation, his co-executive director heads the MLBPA as they prepare for the change. According to him, the darkest days are yet to come. Lockouts make things difficult for the league and its players, but it could be inevitable if things don't change.
Sports with a salary cap have historically seen more lockouts as owners try to lower players' percentages during renegotiations.@MLBPA Deputy Executive Director Bruce Meyer warns that the revenue split could shift even more to owners if MLB implements a salary cap. pic.twitter.com/txBCTQ99SZ
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) July 8, 2025
“We don't want to work selfishly,” Clark said on behalf of the MLBPA. “We don't want to miss games.”
MLB has been remarkably stable when compared to other professional leagues in America. There has not been a major lockout since 1994 and the league is excellent at playing each game each season, barring a pandemic.
Clark has been working on educating players like Crow-Armstrong and other about what a salary cap means for the league.
“The salary cap actually guarantees more lockouts, more work stoppages, more missed games,” Clark said. “The history in capped sports is once they get you in that system, the owners just keep locking the players out to get the players' percentage down.”
Clark and the MLBPA's conversations with the league have been ongoing. However, he wants a solution to be found before a lockout happens.
“We will be there whenever the other side is ready to negotiate,” Clark said. “We will be there with creativity and we will be there doing everything we can to try and avoid it.”
