{"id":599509,"date":"2026-03-01T08:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/599509\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:01:17","slug":"salary-cap-is-a-nonstarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/599509\/","title":{"rendered":"Salary cap is a nonstarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"San<\/a>The Padres\u2019 Jake Cronenworth celebrates with third base coach Tim Leiper after hitting a home run during the eighth inning of a 2025 baseball game against the Atlanta Braves. (File photo by Gregory Bull\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

As Bruce Springsteen said in Atlantic City, \u201con the boardwalk they\u2019re getting ready for a helluva fight.\u201d Well, in Major League Baseball clubhouses across spring camps in Arizona and Florida, the players are also getting ready for a helluva fight. In the Padres<\/a> camp, too.<\/p>\n

Collective bargaining for a new labor deal between MLB teams and the players union is coming. If there\u2019s no deal by the end of the current contract on Dec. 1, MLB\u2019s 30 owners have pledged a lockout. How long that will go depends on how entrenched both sides are in their positions.<\/p>\n

Right now, before any negotiating sessions, both sides are plenty entrenched. The owners are expected to seek a salary cap and floor. Players Association<\/a> leadership and members are drawing a hard line against it. Their vehemence raises a simple question: Will there be baseball in 2027 at Petco Park or any big-league stadium?.<\/p>\n

Jake Cronenworth, the Padres\u2019 veteran second baseman and member of the union\u2019s eight-player executive subcommittee, told Times of San Diego during an interview at the club\u2019s Peoria spring training clubhouse this week that agreeing to a salary cap has never crossed the players\u2019 minds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken a pretty hard stance on that,\u201d Cronenworth said. \u201cNot just this year, but forever. I think that shows the unity and the strength of the Players Association. Everybody can agree on that, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union has argued a salary cap doesn\u2019t provide any more competitive balance than the current luxury tax. The results in leagues with caps, like the NFL, NBA and NHL, prove their point.<\/p>\n

Instead, they argue its true intent is to artificially restrict the money teams can pay players by limiting each team\u2019s total spending. The players view it as a way the owners can increase profits at their expense.<\/p>\n

Nick Pivetta, one of the Padres\u2019 most reliable starting pitchers and the club\u2019s player representatives, said he does not believe salary caps help any sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you see what NFL, NBA and NHL players have to deal with on a daily basis with their contracts,\u201d Pivetta said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we want to follow in that direction. We allow the market to be what it is and allow it to be a free market and make the adjustments in the CBA to help the guys who are being taken advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

All this comes at a fraught time in the history of the union. Bruce Meyer took over as executive director of the MLBPA last week, after former head Tony Clark resigned<\/a> over an improper personal relationship with his wife\u2019s sister, whom Clark had also hired at the union. Meyer is a labor negotiator and lawyer previously employed in the same deputy position when Don Fehr led the NHL Players Association. Fehr had gone from MLB to the NHL, which is a salary cap league. Thus, Meyer is well aware of the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion that somehow a salary cap leads to peace and good will is absolutely inaccurate,\u201d Meyer said in a separate interview<\/a>. \u201cBasically, you still fight over the money. The fans may not realize that since 1994, the cap sports have had way more work stoppages, way more missed games than we have because the percentages they pay the players have gone down over time. They get you into the system and then they lock you out to get those numbers down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyer has toured all the Arizona camps and is on his way now to do the same in Florida. He had his session with the Padres this past Monday and that proved to be fruitful, hardening the club\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did an outstanding job,\u201d Cronenworth said. \u201cEngagement from the guys was great, asking questions. Guys are more interested than ever now. Our primary concern? The league has unfortunately said they\u2019re going to lock us out on Dec. 1. I don\u2019t see a need for that. We all want to play, and we all want to get a deal done. It\u2019s surprising they\u2019d come out this early and say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB hasn\u2019t missed a game because of a labor dispute since the strike of 1994-95 wiped out the end of the 1994 season, plus the playoffs and World Series, then delayed the start of the 1995 season. Replacement players were utilized by all except one team that spring.<\/p>\n

There were threats of another strike in 2002 and an extended lockout in 2022, but the owners and players reached deals at the witching hour. This time might be different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open to proposals, exchanging proposals and making sure there\u2019s communication,\u201d Pivetta said. \u201cIf you look at the last negotiations we sent them a proposal in the offseason and then didn\u2019t hear back from the owners until mid-February. We have to communicate so we\u2019re on the same page and don\u2019t miss games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronenworth and Pivetta are among the Padres\u2019 highest-paid players and have the most to lose. Players don\u2019t get paid during spring training and only start to cash checks from opening day to the season finale. In turn, owners lose day-to-day media and ballpark revenue if the season doesn\u2019t begin.<\/p>\n

The Padres\u2019 payroll this season is sixth in MLB at $262 million for luxury tax purposes, according to Spotrac<\/a>. They had the second highest home attendance last year, at 3.44 million total, for an average per-game attendance of 42,434. Each side has its own war chests to compensate, but the losses would still be substantial.<\/p>\n

From Cronenworth\u2019s perspective it\u2019s worth the fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the other sports there is no parity,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you look at our sport, in the 21st century every team has made the playoffs. Some more often than others. There have been a ton of different champions. That tells you right there, there is parity in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres\u2019 Jake Cronenworth celebrates with third base coach Tim Leiper after hitting a home run during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,11972,18],"class_list":["post-599509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-labor","tag-san-diego-padres"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116152874176972976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}