Last week, the Major League Baseball Players Association submitted a collective bargaining agreement proposal to the league’s owners that the owners had zero chance of ever accepting. Shortly thereafter, the MLB owners submitted a proposal of their own that no player would approve. Welcome to the 2026 MLB labor talks.
On Monday, Bruce Meyer, the interim head of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), told reporters, “I thought they would try harder to make it look good, and they didn’t even do that. They’ve effectively managed to cobble together the worst system for players in any of the major sports, and it’s not even close.”
Meyer also said that if Major League Baseball players accepted the owners’ proposal for a salary cap, players’ share of revenue would go down, they would take a $500 million pay cut, and parts of their contracts would become non-guaranteed.
“That’s something this union has fought against for decades, based on our belief that it’s bad for players at all levels,” Meyer said, explaining the union’s strong opposition to the concept. “And not just monetarily, bad for freedom, bad for competition, eliminates truly guaranteed money. Bad, bad for the fans, in our view, bad for players at every level, particularly bad for the middle class. … Fundamentally, that system is anti-competitive. It’s a form of institutionalized collusion.”
Major League Baseball owners disputed the players’ claims
“Our salary cap-and-floor proposal addresses our fans’ concerns by leveling the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50-50 like the other leagues,” said MLB spokesman Glen Caplin.” Under our proposal, Major League players will receive more compensation in year one of the system than in 2026. We are ready to listen if the MLBPA wants to counter our proposal at the bargaining table.”
The owners also claimed that the players’ proposal would actually make it easier for teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers to continue to spend significantly more money than other teams. In fact, according to Caplin, “under the union’s proposal, the Dodgers would pay less in luxury tax payments, giving them an additional $70 million to spend on payroll.”
“They’ve said, ‘Well, but your CBT proposal, the tax threshold is so high that that would reduce the amount of luxury tax proceeds,’” Meyer said. “It’s the complete opposite of what the league argues (otherwise). When the league tries to make the disparities look greater, they actually include those luxury tax proceeds as part of spending — even though half of it goes directly to the smaller-market teams.”
Despite the massive chasm between the players’ and owners’ proposals, Bruce Meyer still thinks the league can avoid another work stoppage. The current collective bargaining agreement between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the league’s owners expires on Dec. 1. If a compromise hasn’t been reached by then, the owners will more than likely lock out the players.
“Hopefully, everyone is thinking rationally. At the end of the day, we will make a deal,” Meyer said. “I don’t know when or what it’s going to take. But we have to deal with each other.”