MLBPA head vows to fight against salary cap
-
Jeff PassanESPN
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Saying Major League Baseball’s new Economic Reform Committee is “focused in on how best to depress player salaries,” MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark on Saturday vowed to fight any efforts by the league to implement a salary cap after the current labor deal expires in 2026.
Clark, speaking from the union’s new Arizona satellite office, said that despite concerns from owners about the estimated $300 million payroll chasm between the top- and bottom-spending teams this year, the answer is not to implement a ceiling.
“We’re never going to agree to a cap,” Clark said. “Let me start there. We don’t have a cap. We’re not going to agree to a cap.”
“A salary cap is the ultimate restriction on player value and player salary,” Clark added later. “We believe in a market system.”
The expected bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, which controls local broadcast rights for nearly half the teams in baseball, has deepened concerns around the sport about the potential loss of revenue as MLB tries to navigate a media landscape outside the regional-sports-network model.
The Economic Reform Committee ostensibly will convene to discuss that issue, but Clark pointed toward past efforts by the league — including the late-1990s Blue Ribbon Panel — in which consortiums of owners focused on finances always landed on the same solution: a capped system.
The spending of the New York Mets, who are projected to have a payroll of nearly $370 million, and the San Diego Padres, a small-market team committed to upward of $250 million this year, has prompted multiple owners to bemoan the system to which the sides agreed less than a year ago.
“We’ve got to see fundamental change in the economic structure of the game,” Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I believe that we’re positioned to do it — not this year or next year but over the longer-term cycle.”
The Padres, Clark said, “should be celebrated, not questioned” for their moves, which included trading for star outfielder Juan Soto in August and signing star shortstop Xander Bogaerts to a $280 million free agent contract. San Diego’s owner, Peter Seidler, said earlier this week when asked about the concerns about the long-term viability of the Padres’ approach: “When we talk about risk, there’s a risk to doing nothing.”
It’s a sentiment Clark echoed, suggesting that the Padres’ approach is something other smaller-market teams could replicate.
“The question that should be asked in regards to one team’s payroll versus another is whether or not that team is making a conscious decision to have its payroll there or whether it has the ability to increase its payroll,” Clark said.
“There were teams that historically people would say couldn’t, and they have, and in a world where there are organizations that have had success, that have had payrolls markedly higher than they have now when they have that success and yet the industry has grown, begs the questions of whether they can or they can’t,” he added later.
Clark said he is “encouraged by the progress” of negotiations between the union and the league on the first collective bargaining agreement for minor league players and that he hopes they can strike an agreement in the next two to three weeks — but that if there is no deal in place by Opening Day, they are likely to begin the season under the old economics rather than pursue a strike.
His foremost concern — something Clark deemed a “nonstarter” — is the league’s desire to trim the domestic reserve list, or the number of players it can roster at its four minor league affiliates and Arizona or Florida complexes, from 180 to around 165, which MLB believes is a number that better suits the current development systems.
“The idea,” Clark said, “of the league having the ability to cut minor league jobs and/or contracting teams further on the heels of the 40-plus teams that were contracted a couple years ago is troublesome.”
Sports
Prospects who impressed, teams who shocked us (for better or worse) at the 2025 World Juniors
-
Rachel Doerrie, ESPN
For the first time in history, the United States has successfully defended gold at the IIHF world junior championship.
Outstanding performances were the story of the tournament this year. For the first time in recent memory, there were no complaints of “too many blowouts” or “not enough parity.” Every team in the tournament was capable of a competitive game, making for a very unpredictable round robin and medal round.
From surprise upsets to last-minute goals to overtime thrillers and a shootout that lasted far too long, Ottawa put on a fantastic tournament from top to bottom.
In addition to the team competition, this was also a showcase for top prospects (both drafted and those who will be selected in 2025 and 2026), with execs and scouts from all 32 NHL teams in attendance. Here’s a look at players who stood out the most for each team, along with my take on each country’s overall performance:
Jump to a team:
Canada | Czechia
Finland | Germany
Latvia | Slovakia
Sweden | Switzerland
United States
-
Jeff Passan
Close
Jeff Passan
Senior MLB Insider
- ESPN MLB insider
Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” -
Jesse Rogers
Close
Jesse Rogers
ESPN Staff Writer
- Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.
Right-hander Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants are in agreement on a one-year, $15 million contract, sources told ESPN on Tuesday, continuing the future Hall of Famer’s career at age 42 in one of the pitcher-friendliest stadiums in baseball.
Verlander, entering his 20th major league season, is considered perhaps the best pitcher of his generation, with the most innings pitched, strikeouts and wins among active players. A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Verlander is coming off the worst season of his career and joins a Giants team likewise looking for better results than 2024. The deal is pending a physical.
Shoulder and neck injuries limited Verlander to 17 starts, and over his last seven he posted an 8.10 ERA. With a falling strikeout rate and climbing home run rate, Verlander began to show signs of aging after a career in which he seemed impervious to it.
After a dominant 13-year stretch with the Detroit Tigers, Verlander found a second life after joining the Houston Astros in 2017. He won Cy Youngs in 2019 and 2022 — and after the latter signed a two-year, $86.6 million contract with the New York Mets. Verlander spent 16 starts with the Mets before being traded back to the Astros in August 2023.
Over his career, Verlander is 262-147 with a 3.30 ERA over 3,415⅔ innings. He has struck out 3,416 batters, walked 952 and won a pair of World Series with the Astros.
Returning to Houston wasn’t an option for 2025. With Oracle Park a dream for pitchers, Verlander gravitated toward the Giants, whose rotation includes right-hander Logan Webb, left-handers Robbie Ray and Kyle Harrison, and a number of other options for the fifth spot, with right-hander Hayden Birdsong seen as the likeliest candidate.
The Giants had spent a month with limited action before signing Verlander. A month ago to the day, they agreed with shortstop Willy Adames on a seven-year, $182 million contract.
San Francisco, which hired former star catcher Buster Posey as its president of baseball operations in September, went 80-82 last season and finished in fourth place in the National League West, which is arguably the best division in baseball.
-
Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
Northern Illinois will join the Mountain West as a football-only member in 2026, the school and conference announced Tuesday.
“What a great opportunity for NIU Athletics as we expand our horizons, adapt to this new national model of college athletics and prepare to start a new chapter in the history of NIU Football,” NIU athletic director Sean T. Frazier said in a statement.
In addition to NIU, the Mountain West will include Air Force, Hawai’i, UNLV, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State and Wyoming in 2026.
The move is another fallen domino in college sports’ ongoing conference realignment process that caught up to the Mountain West in the fall, when Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State announced they were leaving for the new-look Pac-12, which collapsed in 2023.
“We are excited about adding Northern Illinois football to the Mountain West,” commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement. “In evaluating NIU, the MW Board of Directors and Directors of Athletics carefully considered and were impressed by its history of football success and its commitment to academic excellence.”
It is unclear what conference NIU’s remaining sports will compete in once it moves to the Mountain West for football. The school said it will continue discussions with the Mid-American Conference — where it has participated since 1997 — but will also review opportunities in “several of the regionally based multi-sport conferences.”
The Mountain West also recently announced the additions of Grand Canyon and UC Davis for sports other than football (Grand Canyon does not have football; Davis will remain at the FCS level).
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway