MLB’s growing discourse about a lack of salary cap has extended to the fans.
That’s according to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who said Thursday fans have sent emails voicing their concerns about their teams’ abilities to compete in the current financial landscape.
“This is an issue that we need to be vigilant on,” Manfred said after an owners’ meeting in Florida. “We need to pay attention to it and need to determine whether there are things that can be done to allay those kinds of concerns and make sure we have a competitive and healthy game going forward.”
The salary-cap debate received renewed attention this winter after the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers embarked another spending spree.
Cot’s Contracts projects the Dodgers’ 40-man payroll, including the competitive balance tax, to be $389.1 million in 2025. That’s more than $300 million higher than the least-expensive team, the Miami Marlins, who are projected to spend $83.9 million.
Of course, Manfred’s job is to serve the owners, and many owners have spoken out about the Dodgers’ spending and the league’s lack of payroll parity.
Last month, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told YES Network of the Dodgers, “It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing.” The Yankees, at $304.7 million, are projected by Cot’s to have MLB’s fourth-highest payroll.
Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein recently told Yahoo Finance, “I wish it would be the case that we would have a salary cap in baseball the way other sports do, and maybe eventually we will.”
And Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said on 670 The Score, “They think somehow we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have or the Mets have or the Yankees have and we just keep it. Which isn’t true at all. What happens is we try to break even every year, and that’s about it.”
MLB players have resisted a salary cap to the point that a work stoppage led to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement runs through December 2027.
The Dodgers, who are owned by the deep-pocketed Guggenheim Partners investment firm, signed Mookie Betts to a 12-year, $365 million contract in 2020 and Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million deal in 2023. Both contracts feature heavily deferred money.
This offseason, the Dodgers signed Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract; closer Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 million deal; and Teoscar Hernandez to a three-year, $66 million pact.
In March 2024, Forbes deemed the Dodgers the second-most-valuable MLB franchise ($5.45 billion), behind only the Yankees ($7.55 billion). The Cubs came in fourth at $4.22 billion.
“The Dodgers are a really well-run, successful organization. Everything that they do and have done is consistent with our rules,” Manfred said Thursday.
“I recognize, however, and my emails certainly reflect that there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their team’s ability to compete. And we always have to be concerned when our fans are concerned about something. But pinning it on the Dodgers, I’m not in that camp.”