PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Paul Skenes, Juan Soto and Bryce Harper are among baseball\u2019s All-Stars who say players will never agree to a salary cap but maintain there\u2019s plenty of time to avoid a conflict that could shorten the 2027 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth sides kind of have their line that they\u2019re not going to cross,” Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace who is also a member of the union’s eight-man negotiating committee, said Monday. \u201cWhether that results in missing games or missing a season, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball’s five-year labour contract expires Dec. 1, and MLB is expected to immediately lock out players. The more consequential deadline is in late February or early March, when Major League Baseball would announce whether it was postponing opening day.<\/p>\n
Owners proposed a salary cap\u00a0for the first time since the union fought off MLB’s cap plan with a 7 1\/2-month strike in 1994-95 that caused the first cancellation of the World Series since 1904. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says a cap is needed to lessen payroll disparity.<\/p>\n
Soto, who signed a\u00a0record $765 million, 15-year contract\u00a0with the New York Mets as a free agent after the 2024 season, would be limited to a $265 million, six-year deal under MLB’s proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that sucks,\u201d Soto said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLB\u2019s proposal would cap spending in 2027 at $245.3 million, using figures for luxury tax payrolls that include $20.1 million for benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. It also would establish a payroll floor of $171.2 million, forcing some teams to spend more.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball\u2019s biggest spenders, had a $415.2 million payroll on opening day this year. MLB has not made a proposal on how to phase in a cap, a process that would be key for high-spending clubs such as the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, at 34 in the eighth season of a\u00a0$426.5 million, 12-year contract, said players are aware of the proposal’s intent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s trying to minimize the years and obviously the totals. For sure, we see that,\u201d he said. \u201cI think baseball’s in a good spot right now and we can\u2019t mess this up.”<\/p>\n
Harper, in the eighth season of a\u00a0$330 million, 13-year contract\u00a0with Philadelphia, said he couldn’t conceive of any scenario in which the players’ association would agree to a cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity for players to get paid is what this is all about,\u201d Harper said, citing the union’s legacy of fighting MLB since Curt Flood helped unite players in the 1970s. \u201cWe owe it to the guys that have come before us to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper, who signed his first major league contract at age 17, also vowed to fight MLB’s proposal to\u00a0ban a player from signing until he was at least 20 years old\u00a0by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class. MLB says college baseball provides a better development path.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re in the top three rounds as a high school kid, I think you should be able to do whatever you want,\u201d Harper said. \u201cIt would really be tough for a guy like Jackson Holliday to not be the number one pick and not get the chance to go to the big leagues at 19 or 18 if he\u2019s able to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bargaining began in May and is expected to resume after the All-Star break. The union has asked for expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights, along with almost doubling the major league minimum.<\/p>\n
Pirates pitcher Braxton Ashcraft viewed the early negotiations as \u201cback-and-forth proposals that may or may not be unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skenes, a 24-year-old right-hander in his second full big league season, could see a sharp decrease in potential contract offers under MLB’s system. He is currently on track to become a free agent after the 2029 season and has a $1,085,000 salary in his last season before arbitration eligibility. He also has\u00a0earned nearly $5.6 million from the pre-arbitration bonus pool\u00a0that started in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cMLB is kind of presenting their perfect-world offers and we\u2019re kind of presenting our perfect-world offers,” Skenes said. \u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of time before there\u2019s any real movement, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Diego’s Mason Miller, baseball’s top closer, also could become a free agent following the 2029 season. A 27-year-old right-hander, he is earning $4 million this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have some optimism,\u201d he said. \u201cThe place that the game’s at right now, I think killing that momentum is kind of fruitless for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Paul Skenes, Juan Soto and Bryce Harper are among baseball\u2019s All-Stars who say players will never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-800831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}