Owners, according to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, are “enraged” after the Dodgers reached a deal to bring Kyle Tucker in free agency this offseason. So much so, in fact, that it is now “100% certain” that they will push for a salary cap.
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“These guys are going to get a cap no matter what it takes,” a source told The Athletic. MLB declined to comment on the report.
The Dodgers signed Tucker to a four-year, $240 million contract last week after just one season with the Chicago Cubs. The $60 million average annual value is now the second-largest in MLB history, behind only Shohei Ohtani. However, with Ohtani having a large portion of his contract deferred, Tucker’s deal is effectively the most expensive in MLB history.
The Dodgers, who have now won the World Series in consecutive seasons, are projected to have a payroll exceeding $413 million. This is actually down slightly from last season, just barely, but it’s still by far the largest payroll in the league. Only three other teams (the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays) are projected to exceed $300 million.
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On the other hand, three teams (the Cleveland Guardians, Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins) are projected to have payrolls between $120 million and just $100 million. Exactly half the league will spend less than $200 million next season.
While it was the Dodgers and Tucker that angered this ownership group, the Mets’ recent three-year, $126 million deal with Bo Bichette added to their frustrations. Those two teams, the source said, may be the only teams standing in the way of a salary cap.
A salary cap has been talked about for a while in sports, as has finding a way to fix the payroll disparity across the board. Determining a salary floor and ceiling, according to the report, is expected to be a topic at the owners’ meeting next month.
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It would take at least eight owners to delay a labor agreement, but the players likely won’t agree to a salary cap, as they have been willing to miss games to avoid that system in the past.
The league’s current labor agreement is set to expire shortly before midnight on December 1, 2026. There are still several major issues as both sides work to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. While there’s plenty of time, and an entire season, to figure it out, the salary cap issue clearly isn’t going away. The Dodgers have made sure of that.