MLB, MLBPA Begin 2027 CBA Negotiations - UPDATE 8/28/26

MLB Issues Latest Proposal To MLBPA; Union Swiftly Rejects - MLB Trade Rumors

Major League Baseball issued its latest proposal regarding a new collective bargaining agreement today. The key update is the league’s willingness to push the implementation of a salary cap/floor system from 2027 into the 2028 season, but the mere fact that the entire proposal is contingent on the implementation of a cap/floor system unsurprisingly resulted in a swift rebuke from the MLBPA.

The league’s bullet points on the matter sound appealing but are rather selectively framed. For instance, MLB’s press release proposes an increase to a $1MM league-minimum salary and a $15MM increase to the pre-arbitration bonus pool (plus an additional $10MM going into the pot over the life of the next agreement).

However, reading the actual document itself (link via The Athletic’s Evan Drellich) shows some key caveats. The supposed $1MM league minimum only applies to players with more than two years of big league service time. Since players reach arbitration at three years, that only applies to players with more than two and fewer than three years of service. The top 22% of those players already qualify for arbitration as “Super Two” players anyhow, so that $1MM minimum really only applies to 78% of the players with between two and three years of service.

...

The cap itself is proposed for $258.2MM, with a $180.2MM floor, but those are merely projections. The specific numbers would be based on actual league revenue in the upcoming 2027 season and thus can’t be known at this time.

MLB’s proposal calls for a 50-50 split of all “baseball revenue” with the players beginning in 2028 but does not spell out what exactly “baseball revenues” entails and whether there’s any discrepancy between that and total revenue.

...

Other elements of today’s proposal include reducing the number of times a player can be optioned in a given season from five to four, eliminating the possibility of teams receiving a fourth option year on a player, and a vague mention of “restrictions on a Club’s ability to cycle a player on and off the 40-man and Active rosters throughout the season for strategic reasons.” (Presumably, that’s a nod to teams like the Braves and Orioles repeatedly cycling Carlos Carrasco, Elieser Hernandez and Albert Suarez on and off the 40-man roster via repeated DFAs.) MLB’s proposal also includes weekly roster limitations, moving Rule 5 Draft eligibility up by a year and makes reference to an International Draft (without explicitly proposing specifics surrounding the implementation).

...

The union’s response slams the league’s proposal as an effort to “continue to propose blowing up the current system and replacing it with one designed to line their pockets and increase their franchise values.”

Edited Wednesday at 02:09 PM4 days by rmc523