MLB owners have amassed a reserve fund of approximately $75 million per team — roughly $2 billion total — as they prepare for a potentially extended labor dispute when the current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1.
There is near-unanimous sentiment among club owners to pursue a salary cap in the next CBA, as reported by Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post
One top team executive said, “I have never seen the clubs more united.” The MLB Players Association has long opposed a cap and expects owners to initiate a lockout upon expiration of the current deal.
“I think a lockout is all but guaranteed at the end of the agreement,” MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer said Wednesday, as reported by Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. “The league has pretty much said that. Their strategy in bargaining has always been to put as much pressure on the players as they can to try and create divisions and cracks among our membership. It’s never worked. I don’t think it ever will work.”
Neither formal negotiations nor the upcoming season have been interrupted, but concern within the industry is growing that games — or even the 2027 season — could be at risk. No regular-season games have been lost to a labor dispute since 1994-95.
Owners historically withhold funds from a central reserve entering a CBA year to guard against lost revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcast agreements in the event of a work stoppage.
Meyer said the union is preparing for a push toward a cap.
“We are preparing for a concerted push on the other side for a salary cap,” he said. “And we’re ready for it, and our players are ready for it.”
Commissioner Rob Manfred has downplayed the possibility of a disruption to the 2027 season, saying in August, “My contingency plan is to make an agreement with the players and play the ’27 season.”
The previous round of bargaining resulted in a 99-day lockout before a deal was reached.
