Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred called payroll disparity one of his biggest concerns when talking to members of the media on February 18th. This comes ahead of the 2025 season, which will feature two teams with payrolls exceeding $300 million (the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers), according to Spotrac.
Manfred mentioned the Los Angeles Dodgers, saying that they have “gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules that currently exist, to put the best possible team on the field.” He added that he thinks what the Dodgers are doing is “great for the game” while still acknowledging that payroll disparity is a problem for the league.
“Disparity should be, it certainly is, at the top of my list of concerns about what’s occurring in the sport,” he said during a Spring Training event. “When I say I can’t be critical of the Dodgers – they’re doing what the system allows. If I’m going to be critical of somebody, it’s not going to be the Dodgers. It’s going to be the system.”
Despite this statement, Manfred didn’t say that he would push for a league-wide salary cap when negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the MLB Players Association.
“I’m not going to get into what the answer is,” Manfred said when questioned about whether or not he would like to impose a salary cap in the next CBA. “We’re a year away. I have owners with really strongly held views that I need to coalesce into a position that we’ll ultimately take to the MLBPA. I don’t think starting that debate publicly is a good start. Whatever we settle on, we’re going to present in the collective bargaining process and try to handle it privately in order to get a deal.”
Regardless of where he lands on the issue of installing a salary cap – something the MLBPA has been adamant about never accepting – Rob Manfred hears and understands the issues baseball fans have with certain teams having such large payrolls.
“It’s clear we have fans in some markets that are concerned about the ability of the team in their market to compete with the financial resources of the Dodgers,” he said Tuesday. “If we’ve been consistent on one point, it is we try to listen to our fans on topics like this.”
