Overview
- Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league and the players are meeting regularly and that MLB is "planning on playing baseball next year," comments he made on Sunday during the Little League Classic broadcast.
- Owners have circulated a concrete proposal that would set a hard salary cap at $245.3 million with a $171.2 million floor and roughly split revenues about 50-50, according to reporting.
- The MLB Players Association rejects any payroll limit and has offered a competitive-integrity tax as an alternative, which would penalize the lowest-spending teams to narrow gaps rather than cap overall pay.
- If no agreement is reached by the Dec. 1, 2026 CBA expiration, owners are widely expected to institute a lockout, a work stoppage that would bar players from club facilities and could delay or cancel games.
- Negotiators still disagree on service-time rules, an international draft and TV revenue sharing, and owners point to extreme payroll gaps — highlighted by the Dodgers’ roughly $345 million payroll and large luxury-tax bill — as the reason for structural change.