{"id":816470,"date":"2026-09-28T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/816470\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:18:15","slug":"top-seeded-milwaukee-brewers-tampa-bay-rays-fuel-small-market-case-as-mlb-labor-debate-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/816470\/","title":{"rendered":"Top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays fuel small-market case as MLB labor debate looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

As MLB\u2019s postseason begins, both No. 1 seeds — the Brewers and Rays — are small-market teams, and their performance \u201cfrom here forward will be viewed against the backdrop of baseball\u2019s competitive balance and a likely labor dispute in the offseason,\u201d according to Noah Trister of the AP. The big-spending Dodgers won the last two World Series, which has \u201cgone a long way toward creating the impression that baseball needs substantial changes.\u201d The Brewers have ranked dead last in the CBA\u2019s revenue sharing \u201cmarket score,\u201d while the Rays — another team from a smaller market — are the top seed in the AL. Yet another small-market team, the Guardians, also have a first-round bye in the AL. It is \u201cnaive to think one year\u2019s results would have a huge effect on negotiations between the union and management,\u201d but if the Brewers, Rays or Guardians \u201cgo all the way, that could certainly change the narrative a bit\u201d (AP, 9\/28<\/a>).<\/p>\n

WHAT THE LEAGUE THINKS: THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Ken Rosenthal writes \u201cno outcome this October will change the calculus for the owners.\u201d Even if the small-markets Brewers, Rays or Guardians win the World Series, the league \u201cwill continue its push for a salary cap, contending the sport lacks sufficient parity and is effectively broken.\u201d Revenue disparity between large- and small-market clubs \u201cis a legitimate concern.\u201d The league and players\u2019 union \u201cneed to adopt significant measures to make the playing field more level.\u201d But the league\u2019s argument for \u201cgreater competitive balance, if not a red herring, is at least an argument of convenience.\u201d And \u201cnot a particularly strong one, if you watched the regular season.\u201d If the Dodgers become the first team since the 1998-00 Yankees to win three straight World Series titles, the league \u201csurely will use that data point in its ongoing pitch that only a salary cap can save the sport.\u201d And if the Brewers or Rays win their first Series, or the Guardians their first since 1948, the league will \u201cconsider it an aberration, a single-season outcome that means little when compared to the larger sample size of the previous 10\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 9\/28<\/a>).<\/p>\n

WHAT HAPPENS DOESN\u2019T MATTER: In L.A., Bill Shaikin notes while fans may hear a \u201clot about how the way this postseason sets up, or how it plays out, could impact\u201d CBA talks, the reality is \u201cnothing that happens this October will be relevant to the new labor agreement.\u201d Owners were \u201cready to fight for more than a year\u201d before the Dodgers last offseason signed free agents P Edwin D\u00edaz and RF Kyle Tucker and then traded for P Tarik Skubal in August. If the Dodgers do not complete a three-peat, owners \u201care not going to suddenly back off a salary cap.\u201d Additionally, if the Brewers or Rays win the World Series, owners will \u201csay that\u2019s the exception that proves the rule\u201d (L.A. TIMES, 9\/28<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As MLB\u2019s postseason begins, both No. 1 seeds — the Brewers and Rays — are small-market teams, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,843,59,4280,4],"class_list":["post-816470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-brewers","tag-baseball","tag-brewers","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-milwaukeebrewers","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117349574515007876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816470","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=816470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}