Commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledges that Major League Baseball has a money problem. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been spending heavily, making it difficult for even the wealthiest franchises to keep up.
Manfred told reporters Tuesday the Dodgers aren’t doing anything wrong. They’ve simply “gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules that currently exist, to put the best possible team on the field, and I think that’s great for the game.”
He’s right. Under the current rules, the Dodgers and the big-spending New York Mets are within the confines of the current system. That’s the problem.
Manfred didn’t seem content with the current system.
“Disparity should be, it certainly is, at the top of my list of concerns about what’s occurring in the sport,” he said. “When I say I can’t be critical of the Dodgers — they’re doing what the system allows. If I’m going to be critical of somebody, it’s not going to be the Dodgers. It’s going to be the system.”
The MLB Players Association (MLBPA) has said it would never agree to a salary cap. The current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ends in December 2026, but Manfred didn’t show his hand on whether or not he would attempt to implement a salary cap.
“We’re a year away,” he said. “I have owners with really strongly held views that I need to coalesce into a position that we’ll ultimately take to the MLBPA. I don’t think starting that debate publicly is a good start. Whatever we settle on, we’re going to present in the collective bargaining process and try to handle it privately in order to get a deal.”
The Dodgers have signed five players to nine-figure deals in the last two offseasons. The club’s $392 million payroll is far ahead of the second-place Mets at $321 million. No other team comes close to the $300 million mark.
Lesser-spending teams can still carve a path to the World Series. In 2023, the Arizona Diamondbacks payroll ranked 20th overall, but the D-backs managed a surprise run in October.
However, MLB is consistently run by the bigger-spending clubs. The same old arguments are repeated: small market fan bases lose interest, stars only go to big cities, it doesn’t grow the game, and so on. The last two seasons have amplified those arguments.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts have stated that keeping up with the Dodgers is challenging. When two of the sport’s most recognizable clubs realize the problem, something must be done.
Time will tell what happens during CBA negotiations, but it’s clear from the top down that people are aware of MLB’s growing problems.
