The Los Angeles Dodgers are back in the World Series with the narrative of the importance of the salary cap just before the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which expires in December 2026.  It was their 13th straight postseason, with 12 NL West titles, and in between, they won five pennants and two World Series titles. If they win this time, they’ll be the first team in this century — and since the New York Yankees in the ’90s—to repeat the title.

So, if they win, that is very much possible even when they’re down 0-1 after Game 1. As per most predictions, they don’t just bring the rings home; they bring the narrative of ruining baseball with their relentless dominance and more than $1 billion roster.

And it was so loud that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had to reply. “I’ll tell you, before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball, let’s go!”Roberts said after their pennant win.

So, is a lockout coming? 

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Clark made one thing clear: the union will never agree to a salary cap. “Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, restated his concerns over gambling in sports in the wake of the NBA gambling scandal, emphasized that the union will never agree to a salary cap,” Nightengale wrote. Clark believes “the small and large market teams are separated only by their willingness to want to win.”

He laughed at the notion that the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Before Game 1 of the World Series, Clark asked, “The question for me would be who is working to create the narrative that is challenging the excellence that we’re seeing.” Nightengale noted that when the Yankees built a dynasty, it was celebrated as greatness, and when Atlanta won 14 straight division titles from 1991 to 2005, it was viewed the same way. So why the criticism now?

“In the late 90s, there were repeat champions, and I was actually a player at that time. The sky was falling as the Yankees repeated,” Clark said. “Here we are, nearly 30 years later, and the industry has grown exponentially. The idea that there is excellence among the clubs, you tip your hat to those clubs. There are opportunities for all 30 teams to be excellent.”

But what about the league and the owners?

Though Rob Manfred is cautious with his words and rarely uses the term “salary cap” in public, Clark and the union are well aware that MLB will ultimately seek a cap. Because Commissioner Rob Manfred often says fans are worried about the league’s massive disparity problem, he knows he has a divided group of owners and can never confront them directly.

And there is another issue. That is, the phrase “salary cap” is so toxic that it can cause chaos even when mentioned. That happened in July 2025 when Manfred visited the Phillies clubhouse. He reportedly started “floating the word ‘lockout. ‘” This enraged superstar Bryce Harper, and he reportedly told  the commissioner, “If you want to speak about that, you can get the f— out of our clubhouse.” And it’s the same way the union sees the cap. 

“The issues that we see in the system we know can be addressed without a cap,” Clark said about the problem of unwillingness to spend. “All 30 teams have the wherewithal to put a very good team on the field. We are provided information that is confidential information. We are not allowed to share that information.”

Now, with the season finally at its last series of the season, we are surely going to get some more interesting debate around that in the dawn of the final season before the expiry of the current CBA.  And it’s not a blasphemy to say that in the upcoming season, the off-field battle between MLB vs MLBPA will get some more attention than the battle on the field.