In recent days, the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers have faced a new round of criticism for ‘ruining baseball’ after signing top free agent Kyle Tucker to a deal that will pay him $60 million per season and take the team’s competitive balance tax payroll CBT above $400 million.
With tensions already high heading into 2026, the furor and jealousy surrounding the Dodgers’ latest big-money move may embolden MLB owners – many of whom decline to invest in the on-field product – to dig their heels in even further in a push to institute a salary cap.
Unlike the NFL or NBA, MLB has never had a hard cap. It’s something the league and owners have always wanted, but the idea is historically dead on arrival with the players association. MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said last year that a salary cap would be further ‘institutionalized collusion’ that suppresses player wages.
Here’s what some of the biggest names in baseball have said in recent years about a potential salary cap:
Bryce Harper, Phillies
The two-time MVP reportedly got ‘face-to-face’ with Manfred during a visit to the Phillies clubhouse in July 2025 and told MLB’s commissioner to ‘get the (expletive) out’ if he was going to be talking about a salary cap.
Harper didn’t dispute the report, telling reporters later that ‘everybody saw the words and everything that happened, but I don’t want to say anything more than that.’
‘I’ve talked labor, and I’ve done it in a way that I don’t need to talk to the media about it,’ Harper said. ‘I don’t need it out there. It has nothing to do with media or anybody else. … I’ve always been very vocal, just not in a way that people can see.’
Scott Boras, Harper’s agent, backed his client and pointed out the MLB draft cap that was instituted two years after Harper was selected No. 1 overall in 2010.
‘Young players need to talk with veterans like Harp. Harp has been fighting the consequences of caps his whole life,’ Boras told The Athletic. ‘… Harp knows what caps can do to players’ rights, especially young players.’
Tony Clark, MLBPA executive director
“Institutionalized collusion, that’s what a salary cap is …’ Clark told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at the 2025 All-Star Game. “A cap is not about a partnership. A cap isn’t about growing the game. A cap is about franchise values and profits. …
“A salary cap historically has limited contract guarantees associated with it, literally pits one player against another and is often what we share with players as the definitive non-competitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence. It undermines it from an organizational standpoint. That’s why this is not about competitive balance. It’s not about fair versus not fair.’
Clark says plenty of teams have money, based on the financial information they receive, but choose not to be competitive.
“We believe there are ways to incentivize and provide support to those who are in a different market than in LA or New York,’ Clark said. “There’s an opportunity to do that, and do so to the benefit of the group that doesn’t require a restriction on player salaries to do so.’
Rob Manfred, MLB commissioner
“When I talk to the players, I don’t try to convince them that a salary cap system would be a good thing,” Manfred said in 2025. “I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.’
Scott Boras, baseball agent
The most high-profile agent in American sports has always been vocal in his opposition to a salary cap.
“We’ve heard it for 20 years. It’s almost like the childhood fable,” he said in 2025. “This very traditional, same approach is not something that would lead the younger players to the gingerbread house.”
Dave Roberts, Dodgers manager
‘I’m alright with (a salary cap),’ Roberts said in late 2025. ‘I think the NBA has done a nice job of revenue sharing with the players and the owners. But if you’re going to kind of suppress spending at the top, I think that you got to raise the floor to make those bottom-feeders spend money too.’
The MLBPA wasn’t too pleased with the three-time World Series champion manager showing public support for a cap, but Roberts later stood by his thoughts.
“Here’s the thing,’ Roberts said, “I’m entitled to an opinion, as we all are. And so I think that’s one man’s opinion. And fortunately – unfortunately – I don’t have a vote.’
