MLB, MLBPA open negotiations ahead of CBA expiration: Salary cap, expansion and more issues on the table

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Negotiations regarding baseball's next collective bargaining agreement began Tuesday in New York, reports The Athletic. The current CBA expires Dec. 1 and serious negotiations are weeks away. MLB and the MLBPA each present their view of the state of baseball during initial meetings. Formal proposals and counterproposals will come later.

MLB and the owners are again expected to pursue a salary cap, something they've done repeatedly since all the way back in the 1880s. The union has resisted calls for a salary cap and figures to do so again this CBA cycle. A salary cap is very likely to be the single biggest issue on the table. Here's what we wrote about the salary cap battle back in February:

Long story short, CBA negotiations are about money. Everything else is secondary. There is a giant pile of money and the two sides haggle because they each want a bigger piece. MLB has done a good job selling a salary cap as necessary to improve competitive balance, but make no mistake, it is about money. Above all, a salary cap restricts player salaries and boosts franchise values.

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The union has resisted a salary cap -- MLB is the only non-capped league in North America -- and figures to do so again this CBA negotiation. It is easy to be a doomer about these things and expect games to be missed in 2027, and maybe they will be, but it is way too early to say that for certain. MLB's national television deals are up in 2028. Losing games would be terrible for business.

Also, a salary cap is not a simple yes or no item. Even if the MLBPA relents and agrees to a salary cap, the two sides have to agree on how the whole thing would work. What counts as baseball-related revenue and what percentage do the players receive? What's the cap? What's the floor? How do you implement it? The yes/no is the easy part. Figuring out the system is the real fight.

Other major CBA issues include the revenue-sharing program, which is likely to be adjusted (perhaps significantly) with or without a salary cap, as well as the postseason format, an international draft, and expansion. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he would like to put the expansion wheels in motion before he retires at the end of his contract in January 2029.

Former MLBPA executive director Tony Clark abruptly retired in February after an internal investigation revealed an "inappropriate relationship" with his sister-in-law, who was also a union employee. Bruce Meyer, the MLBPA's lead negotiator since 2018, was elevated to interim executive director soon thereafter. The transition from Clark to Meyer should be relatively seamless.

"We don't expect anything to change in terms of bargaining," Meyer said in February. "We've been preparing for bargaining for years. Players have been preparing. Players know what's coming. At the end of the day, leadership is important and leadership comes and goes, but what remains is the players. At the end of the day, it's the players who determine the direction of the union. At the end of the day, it's the players who determine our priorities and bargaining. Those priorities obviously have not changed and will not change."

The CBA expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Dec. 1. If MLB and the MLBPA do not reach a new CBA by then, the owners are expected to lock out the players, as they did five years ago. The 2021-22 lockout was baseball's first work stoppage since the 1994-95 players' strike. No games were missed, though a deal wasn't reached until March, which compromised spring training.