Morgan Sword, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations, points to a $446 million gap between the highest and lowest payrolls. He calls the Milwaukee Brewers’ recent championship an exception rather than a sign that the system works.
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In a message on MLB’s official X account on Nov. 13, Sword said, “What are fans’ issues with baseball today? Two things. One, blackouts. Fans can’t watch the games they want to watch. And second, the game needs to be fairer.”
Sword backed that with numbers. The top four clubs during the current CBA outspent the bottom 22 combined in free agency, and since 1998 the five highest payrolls averaged 89 wins against 74 for the five lowest. Large markets also accounted for 90 percent of the last decade’s World Series champions. Those gaps are the reason MLB wants to change how the sport pays for itself, and its answer is a three-part overhaul.
In the same Nov. 13 campaign on MLB’s official X account, Sword said, “We enter into a partnership with the players where we split all the revenue generated 50-50 between the teams and the players.”
Every designated dollar of baseball revenue would go into one pool. MLB and the MLBPA would retain an independent accountant to audit club books yearly, copying the revenue-tracking systems the NBA and NHL use.
The second piece, a salary cap and floor, would replace the luxury tax, which lets rich clubs spend freely if they pay a penalty. Eight high-spending teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and New York Yankees, would have to cut a combined $528 million, while 12 clubs would spend $636 million more collectively.
To keep teams from sidestepping the cap, MLB also wants to end deferred contracts like Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s.
The players’ union sees a catch in the revenue split. It argues that owners have long shielded ballpark real estate profits from revenue pools, which would limit player earnings.
The third piece, equal sharing of media revenue, is the one aimed at blackouts. In a post on its official X account listing the three changes, MLB wrote, “This will reduce the revenue disparity in baseball and help us address local blackouts.”
MLB has now extended the cap until 2028, with a $258.2 million cap and a $180.2 million floor, but retained most of its other proposals for 2027. The union remains opposed to the hard cap. The union’s resistance has a precedent in the National Hockey League. Teams spent 76 percent of their revenue on salaries, leaving several small teams close to bankruptcy; thus, the league called off its 2004-05 season to adopt a hard cap with mandatory revenue sharing.
Players have agreed to take a 24 percent reduction in salaries and a lower revenue split, yet research shows that payroll disparities have reduced and that parity has improved. In 2005, the cap stood at $39 million but after two decades had reached over $100 million. Baseball fans, however, are not looking at hockey’s outcome, and their reaction to MLB’s pitch has been far less patient.
Fans React to MLB’s Salary Cap Pitch as Blackout Promise Meets Skepticism
MLB aimed its pitch at supporters, but many replied with doubt on X. Critics noted that owners already control blackout rules and questioned why a campaign against the players ran on official league channels.
“It’s pretty embarrassing that you’re trying to use blackouts as a bargaining chip when you could unilaterally eliminate them to benefit fans,” wrote one fan.
“When you get rid of blackouts, get back to us. Until then I’m out,” said another fan.
Blackouts exist because regional sports networks pay for exclusive territory, and Iowa alone is blacked out for six teams. MLB has tied blackout relief to union approval of a cap, with a unified streaming product expected only after 2028.
“This is the end of baseball. Players will never agree to a salary cap,” read another reaction.
The players’ union kept opposing a hard cap even after MLB delayed it. The current CBA expires Dec. 1, which raises the risk of a work stoppage that could reach the 2027 season.
A user commented, “Somebody finally remembered there are 28 other teams besides the Dodgers and Yankees.”
The Dodgers and Yankees have ranked as the two biggest spenders since 1998 and have won the most games in that span. The Dodgers have not had a losing season since 2010, and the Yankees have not had one since 1992.
Another said, “Fun fact: You can still do revenue sharing without a salary cap.”
Critics argue a salary floor alone could force cheap owners to spend. MLB counters that adding $50 million to $70 million to small-market payrolls would still leave them hundreds of millions behind the top spenders without a cap.
Another said, “See ya in 2028 lol.”
The delay pushes the cap fight to 2028, so this fan jokes about a long wait. MLB Insider Bob Nightengale reports the union still views 2027 as unfavorable because Competitive Balance Tax thresholds did not rise, and delaying the cap does not remove it.
MLB wants fans to see a cap as the route to fewer blackouts and fairer odds. With the CBA expiring Dec. 1 and the union opposed, fans are still waiting to see whether that promise survives bargaining.