LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts appeared open about this, with Major League Baseball labor-management negotiations and the introduction of salary caps becoming the biggest topic a year away.
“The Athletic” introduced Roberts’ remarks on Tuesday night local time on “Good Sports,” an Amazon Prime program hosted by Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson.
Roberts expressed a positive stance on the introduction of the Major League salary cap, saying, “I think it’s okay.”
사진 확대 Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he is open to introducing salary cap. 사진=ⓒAFPBBNews = News1
“In my opinion, the NBA has been doing well in terms of sharing profits between players and owners,” he said, citing the example of the NBA, where the salary cap system is successfully operating.
At the same time, he said, “If you want to curb the spending of the top clubs, you should raise the lower limit of the total salary to make the lower clubs spend money.”
Unlike other sports such as the NBA and the NFL, Major League Baseball does not have a salary cap, but instead pays a team that has recorded more than a certain amount of annual salary under the name of a wealth tax.
There are voices among owners that Major League Baseball should also introduce salary cap based on profit sharing, but the players’ union is clearly expressing its opposition.
The heads of both sides, who visited the site during the Major League All-Star event in July, voiced conflicting opinions in this regard.
Tony Clark, general secretary of the players’ union, described the salary cap as “institutionalized collusion” and denounced it as a system for the value and gain of the club. “Salary caps have historically limited the value of guaranteed contracts and competed among players. It does not compensate for excellence, but has undermined it from an organizational point of view,” he said, pointing out the problem.
사진 확대 Commissioner Manfred does not directly mention the salary cap, but it is reported that the owners strongly want the introduction of the salary cap. 사진=ⓒAFPBBNews = News1
In this regard, Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “I am not convincing the players that ‘salary caps are a good thing’. I explain to the players the problems related to the media business and explain that the owners feel the need for change to solve the problems. And we are talking about the second problem. It is that we feel that there is a problem with the balanced competition of many fans in our market,” he said, stressing that there is a need for change instead, although he did not insist on introducing salary cap.
In the same month, the player and Commissioner Manfred collided directly. When Manfred, who is having a team meeting around the club, met the Philadelphia Phillies squad, Philadelphia first baseman Bryce Harper reportedly used abusive language to the commissioner and said, “If you want to talk about the issue, turn it off in the clubhouse.”
Major League Baseball, which had maintained labor-management peace for a while since the 1994-95 players’ union strike, experienced a lockout in 2022 when collective joint negotiations failed to reach an agreement. At that time, the 2022 season was finally fully completed due to a belated agreement, but as the agreement’s expiration approaches in December 2026, dark clouds are hanging over labor-management relations again.
Roberts, who led the Dodgers to three World Series championships, is drawing attention because he made the remarks in this situation.
[KIM JAE HO, MK Sports Reporter]