MLB Owners Push Salary Cap to 2028

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Major League Baseball owners have offered to hold off on a salary cap until the 2028 season, turning 2027 into a transition year, in their newest proposal to the players union with the current labor deal set to expire in about four weeks.

Under the plan the league made public Tuesday, the cap would sit at $258.2 million with a payroll floor of $180.2 million. A June proposal had put the cap at $245.3 million and the floor at $171.2 million beginning in 2027.

The league said it delayed the start because clubs need a full offseason to get ready to operate under a cap and floor, and this offseason is already underway. MLB said the change would not hold back benefits it has offered players, such as a quicker path to free agency, a minimum salary of $1 million and a pre-arbitration bonus pool that grows by 30%.

Twelve clubs spent less in 2026 than the proposed floor, among them the Marlins, Brewers, Guardians, Cardinals, Rays and Pirates. The league estimates those teams would add a combined $636 million in salary to reach it, while the eight clubs above the proposed cap would shed about $528 million, a net gain of roughly $108 million.

The offer also sets a 2027 minimum of $1 million for anyone with two or more years of service, and $900,000 below that mark. The 2026 minimum was $780,000, and the league called the jump the largest one-year increase in its history.

Owners accepted two union ideas from May: ending the qualifying offer and the draft-pick compensation tied to it, and letting players 30 or older reach free agency after five years of service instead of six, with clubs keeping a right to sign the player for a sixth year. The plan would also limit a club to four minor league options on a player per season, down from five, and drop the fourth option year.

The Major League Baseball Players Association rejected the framework in a statement Tuesday night. The union said the owners keep trying to blow up the current system to boost their own profits and franchise values, and that the transition year does not change the core harm of a cap.

The union listed what it sees as the damage: deep cuts to player pay, the loss of guaranteed contracts and other basic player rights, a $400 million drop in amateur signing bonuses that strips small-market clubs of an edge, and the rejection of dozens of player proposals on minimum salaries, revenue sharing and roster rules. The union said players remain ready to bargain in good faith toward a new collective bargaining agreement.

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