{"id":336817,"date":"2026-05-29T01:18:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/336817\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:18:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:18:32","slug":"shaikin-as-mlb-proposes-salary-cap-sacramento-pursues-team-it-might-not-be-able-to-afford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/336817\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaikin: As MLB proposes salary cap, Sacramento pursues team it might not be able to afford"},"content":{"rendered":"

They had balloons, baseball caps and a splashy video. They even had Dusty Baker<\/a>, because any day with Dusty Baker is a good day.<\/p>\n

And, as a campaign called \u201cThe Sacramento Pitch\u201d unveiled its plan to lure a Major League Baseball expansion team to the state capital, the mayor made his pitch a blunt one.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis region has earned its place in the majors,\u201d Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said Thursday. \u201cAnd, frankly, MLB could use Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see. But, as McCarty and other dignitaries rallied in Sacramento, a more important gathering was happening in New York, at which MLB owners formally proposed the salary cap<\/a> players have vowed to resist.<\/p>\n

Read more: Shaikin: For Dodgers, getting to playoffs is not good enough for Mark Walter. For Lakers?<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether owners can get a cap \u2014 either by persuasion through the fall and winter, or more likely by canceling games next spring so players go unpaid \u2014 remains to be seen. For Sacramento and the other American and Canadian cities pursuing two expansion teams, the outcome of collective bargaining could determine the fee MLB would charge for each one.<\/p>\n

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On Thursday, Sacramento unveiled a $4-billion proposal to land a team, build a riverfront ballpark and surround it with an entertainment district. By the time MLB is ready to expand \u2014 after collective bargaining, and most likely after new media rights deals in 2028 \u2014 baseball insiders suggest the expansion fee itself could be around $4 billion.<\/p>\n

Said Barry Broome, president of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council<\/a>: \u201cIf it\u2019s a $4-billion fee, I\u2019ll be surprised if there are too many people that would pay that.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB never has had a salary cap. In 1994, the last time MLB proposed one, the players went on strike, and the World Series was not played.<\/p>\n

Now, the league argues, payroll disparities are so great that only a cap can solve them. In its presentation Thursday, MLB noted the Dodgers<\/a> paid more in luxury taxes last season than 16 teams paid in player salaries and cited a $446-million payroll gap between the Dodgers ($515 million) and the lowest-paying team, the Miami Marlins<\/a> ($69 million).<\/p>\n

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The league also said fans in a large market have a 50% chance of seeing their team win the World Series by age 12, while fans in a small market have a 50% chance of seeing their team win by the World Series by age 73.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the game is about hope and competition, and too many fans in too many markets have too little hope their team has a fair chance to win,\u201d MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The MLB proposal<\/a>: a cap with a maximum payroll of $235 million and a minimum payroll of $171 million, with those figures including $23 million per team in player benefits. The Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 payroll would be cut roughly in half, although the league and the union would discuss ways to phase in such cuts over time.<\/p>\n

Those savings help explain why the Dodgers \u2014 at least for now \u2014 would support a proposal that includes every team throwing their local television rights into a pool that would be marketed as one national package \u2014 one place to see every game, with no blackouts, and with revenue shared equally among teams.<\/p>\n

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The Dodgers\u2019 SportsNet LA deal<\/a> \u2014 $8.35 billion over 25 years \u2014 has provided the team with a massive financial edge in funding back-to-back World Series champions.<\/p>\n

The MLB Players\u2019 Assn. believes the owners can share all that revenue \u2014 from local television and other sources \u2014 and thus resolve financial disparities without capping player salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cBillionaire owners are not seeking to cap their profits or asset values, only player salaries,\u201d MLBPA<\/a> executive director Bruce Meyer said in a statement. \u201cThis isn\u2019t out of generosity or a desire to protect the game\u2019s well-being. It\u2019s a play to control costs, increase profits and maximize franchise values \u2014 all at the expense of players past, present and future.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB owners have been distressed as franchise values \u2014 ultimately, sale prices \u2014 have not appreciated as rapidly as they have in other sports. A salary cap would offer owners the cost certainty \u2014 50% of industry revenue, however that might be defined, would go to players \u2014 that limits financial risk in ownership.<\/p>\n

\"MLBPA<\/p>\n

MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer will be at the forefront of collective bargaining talks in the year ahead. (Richard Drew \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

In the NBA, which has a salary cap and media deals more lucrative than in MLB, the league reportedly anticipates bids in the range of $7 billion to $10 billion for proposed expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle.<\/p>\n

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In MLB, a prominent official with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly told me the expansion fee could range from $3 billion to $5 billion \u2014 on the lower end without a salary cap, on the higher end with a cap and the greater media revenues that could come with it.<\/p>\n

That could leave Sacramento and the other MLB suitors \u2014 including Salt Lake City, Montreal, Nashville, Raleigh, Charlotte, Orlando, Vancouver and Portland \u2014 scrambling for more funding at a time the surprisingly common thought is an expansion fee would be about $2 billion.<\/p>\n

In 2021, when Sportico estimated the average MLB franchise value at $2.2 billion, Commissioner Rob Manfred said that figure could be \u201cwhere you would start\u201d in evaluating an expansion fee. Sportico this year put the average franchise value at $3.2 billion, and the San Diego Padres<\/a> sold last month for a league-record $3.9 billion.<\/p>\n

In Sacramento, campaign chairman Mark Friedman said his group has lined up $1.8 billion in private and public funding and is in search of a lead investor, with the stadium site and tax rebates already arranged with local governments.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve set the table,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cAll of the guests are in attendance. We\u2019re simply waiting for the guest of honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broome said he spoke with representatives from two runners-up in the Padres bidding as well as \u201ca group of billionaires from Texas<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s all tire-kicking for now, he said.<\/p>\n

Read more: Travis Kelce buys stake in Cleveland Guardians, continuing trend of athletes becoming owners<\/a><\/p>\n

For $4 billion, Friedman said, Sacramento can get a team, put up a stadium and surround it with places to eat, shop and play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re targeting being able to be competitive up to $4 billion,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it turns out to be more than that, we\u2019ll need to look at the numbers again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the meantime, Baker was there to tell a few stories and put everyone in his hometown at ease, as he did for decades as one of baseball\u2019s most acclaimed managers.<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Baker celebrated the dozens of major leaguers who that come out of Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some of the baddest dudes in baseball \u2014 not only in Sacramento, but in baseball. We were proud of that,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you weren\u2019t hitting \u2014 if you were hitting now like some of these guys are hitting now, .217 \u2014 man, we\u2019d talk about you. Because, if you were from Sacramento, you gotta ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They had balloons, baseball caps and a splashy video. They even had Dusty Baker, because any day with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[139056,74992,426,77299,12005,13130,3834,25154,1334,121,123,122,24786,2611,427,564],"class_list":["post-336817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-baseball-caps","tag-collective-bargaining","tag-dodgers","tag-dusty-baker","tag-expansion-team","tag-kevin-mccarty","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-miami-marlins","tag-mlb","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-salary-cap","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-team","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}