MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says fans are concerned about lack of salary cap

MLB’s increasing sermon astir a deficiency of wage headdress has extended to the fans.

That’s according to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who said Thursday fans person sent emails voicing their concerns astir their teams’ abilities to vie successful the existent fiscal landscape.

“This is an contented that we request to beryllium vigilant on,” Manfred said aft an owners’ gathering successful Florida. “We request to wage attraction to it and request to find whether determination are things that tin beryllium done to allay those kinds of concerns and marque definite we person a competitory and steadfast crippled going forward.”

The salary-cap statement received renewed attraction this wintertime aft the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers embarked different spending spree.

Cot’s Contracts projects the Dodgers’ 40-man payroll, including the competitory equilibrium tax, to beryllium $389.1 cardinal successful 2025. That’s much than $300 cardinal higher than the least-expensive team, the Miami Marlins, who are projected to walk $83.9 million.

Of course, Manfred’s occupation is to service the owners, and galore owners person spoken retired astir the Dodgers’ spending and the league’s deficiency of payroll parity.

Last month, Yankees proprietor Hal Steinbrenner told YES Network of the Dodgers, “It’s hard for astir of america owners to beryllium capable to bash the benignant of things that they’re doing.” The Yankees, astatine $304.7 million, are projected by Cot’s to person MLB’s fourth-highest payroll.

Baltimore Orioles proprietor David Rubenstein precocious told Yahoo Finance, “I privation it would beryllium the lawsuit that we would person a wage headdress successful shot the mode different sports do, and possibly yet we will.”

And Chicago Cubs proprietor Tom Ricketts said connected 670 The Score, “They deliberation someway we person each these dollars that the Dodgers person oregon the Mets person oregon the Yankees person and we conscionable support it. Which isn’t existent astatine all. What happens is we effort to interruption adjacent each year, and that’s astir it.”

MLB players person resisted a wage headdress to the constituent that a enactment stoppage led to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. The existent Collective Bargaining Agreement runs done December 2027.

The Dodgers, who are owned by the deep-pocketed Guggenheim Partners concern firm, signed Mookie Betts to a 12-year, $365 cardinal declaration successful 2020 and Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 cardinal woody successful 2023. Both contracts diagnostic heavy deferred money.

This offseason, the Dodgers signed Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 cardinal contract; person Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 cardinal deal; and Teoscar Hernandez to a three-year, $66 cardinal pact.

In March 2024, Forbes deemed the Dodgers the second-most-valuable MLB franchise ($5.45 billion), down lone the Yankees ($7.55 billion). The Cubs came successful 4th astatine $4.22 billion.

“The Dodgers are a truly well-run, palmy organization. Everything that they bash and person done is accordant with our rules,” Manfred said Thursday.

“I recognize, however, and my emails surely bespeak that determination are fans successful different markets who are acrophobic astir their team’s quality to compete. And we ever person to beryllium acrophobic erstwhile our fans are acrophobic astir something. But pinning it connected the Dodgers, I’m not successful that camp.”

With News Wire Services