MLB pushes its salary cap to 2028 as a Dec. 1 lockout looms: what changed and what players say

Major League Baseball on Tuesday, Nov. 3, proposed postponing the start of a salary cap until 2028, the Associated Press reported. Baseball’s five-year labor contract expires Dec. 1, and management is expected to lock out the players when it does.

What changed

Under the new version a club could sit as low as 90% of the floor, which would be $162.18 million in 2028, but would have to spend the full floor over a three-year period. The proposal is tied to a 50-50 split of revenue with players. MLB said the delay was to give teams a full offseason to adjust; spokesman Glen Caplin said clubs “will need a full offseason to prepare.”

The AP wrote that MLB had not proposed a cap since the talks that led to the 7½-month strike of 1994-95, which canceled the World Series for the first time in 90 years.

Who would be affected

MLB said eight teams would have to cut a combined $528 million to get under the 2028 cap: Boston, the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Mets and Yankees, Philadelphia, San Diego and Toronto. It said 12 teams would have to add a combined $636 million to reach the floor. Those are management’s figures, and the union disputes how revenue and expenses are defined.

What the players say

In an unsigned statement, the players’ association said owners “continue to propose blowing up the current system,” and listed among its objections the “replacement of market-based fundamentals with a zero-sum system” that “pits player against player,” per Sporting News. It argues an escrow provision would claw back pay if the players’ share of defined revenue rose above 50%, effectively ending guaranteed contracts, and that the plan would cut amateur signing bonuses by $400 million in 2027.

The players’ opposition is not new. At the All-Star Game in July, pitcher Paul Skenes said “both sides kind of have their line that they’re not going to cross,” per a July 13 AP report, which said the more consequential deadline would be late February or early March, when MLB would decide whether to postpone opening day. That report predates the Nov. 3 proposal.

What owners offered players

The package raises the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1 million for players with two years of service and to $900,000 for others, per the AP, and lifts the pre-arbitration bonus pool from $50 million this year to $65 million in 2027. MLB also accepted the union’s request to cut the free-agency period from six years of service to five and is willing to drop the qualifying offer, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, as relayed by Dodger Blue. The 2027 season would keep the current luxury-tax thresholds, and MLB said it is willing to discuss a phase-in.

The scale of the gap

The AP reported in June that the Dodgers’ 2026 opening-day payroll was $415.2 million, about $170 million over the $245.3 million cap MLB had proposed in May. Against the revised $258.2 million figure, the gap would be about $157 million (our arithmetic). Those compare a 2026 payroll with a future cap and are illustrative, not projections of the club’s 2028 payroll.

Key dates

Dates per the Boston Globe and MLB Trade Rumors. For perspective, the 2021-22 lockout lasted 99 days and ended March 10, 2022, the second-longest work stoppage after 1994-95, per CBS Sports.

What’s next

The contract expires Dec. 1. We did not find reports of a deal or of new talks after the Nov. 3 proposal. Awards season continues in the meantime; see our guide to the BBWAA finalists and reveal schedule.

Part of our coverage of MLB's offseason.