Overview
- Negotiations between Major League Baseball and the players’ union are ongoing, with owners proposing an absolute team payroll cap, a payroll floor and a 50-50 revenue split.
- The owners’ numerical 2027 proposal calls for a $245.3 million team salary cap and a $171.2 million floor, with payroll measures to include benefits and other labor costs.
- The Major League Baseball Players Association opposes a hard cap and has offered alternative reforms such as a $1.5 million minimum salary, a $300 million luxury-tax threshold, competitive-integrity taxes for low-payroll clubs, and earlier free agency.
- The current collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1, 2026, and if no deal is reached owners could impose a lockout that would stop trades and signings and could disrupt spring training and the 2027 schedule.
- Industry actors are already planning for a possible lost season, and past labor fights show different outcomes: the 1994 strike canceled the World Series while the 2022 lockout delayed spring training but preserved a 162-game season after schedule adjustments.