Overview
- Team owners have shown unprecedented unanimity in seeking a hard salary cap and have signaled they are prepared to impose a lockout at the Dec. 1 contract deadline if no deal is reached.
- The owners' reported proposal would set a salary cap near $245.3 million and a salary floor around $171.2 million, a structure owners say is meant to narrow payroll gaps.
- Major League Baseball Players Association chief Bruce Meyer has firmly rejected any hard cap and says the union will resist deals that make other concessions contingent on cap adoption.
- Columnists and some league insiders are proposing non-cap penalties to curb big spenders, including limits on acquiring high-salary players in trades, smaller active rosters for high-spending clubs, and draft pick penalties for teams over a top threshold.
- A lockout would threaten spring training, delay Opening Day and halt players' paychecks, and MLB is also watching federal investigations into Dodgers owner Mark Walter that add reputational pressure on ownership.