PHILADELPHIA (AP) 鈥� The head of baseball’s players’ union chastised management on Tuesday for its advertising campaign in support of a salary cap while Commissioner Rob Manfred maintained the proposal was developed in response to fans.
Bruce Meyer, who said the sport was thriving despite assertions by Major League Baseball that massive change is needed.
鈥淚 have watched over the last few years the owners, the commissioner鈥檚 office, try to convince fans, the consumers of their product, that the product is broken,鈥� Meyer said ahead of the . “The supposed stewards of the game have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince those same fans that they don鈥檛 have hope or they shouldn鈥檛 have hope or that the product that they鈥檙e paying to consume in record numbers is somehow broken. I think it鈥檚 perverse.鈥�
Attendance has averaged 29,230 this season, up 1.2% from 28,895 through similar dates last year. MLB is on pace for its highest attendance since 2017.
Management in May , which players say they will never accept. MLB launched a claiming fans support a cap that contains a floor.
鈥淚n order for this game to reach its full potential we need to continue to address concerns that our fans have, particularly concerns that go to the core of what we鈥檙e about, that is competitive balance,鈥� Manfred said in a separate question-and-answer session.
鈥淲e need to make sure that fans in markets at the beginning of the season have a realistic belief that their team has a chance to win,” he added. “I think that we need a system where fans, particularly in smaller markets, can have some hope that the players that are signed and developed by their organizations can actually stay there through free agency and honestly I think we need a system where there is a more robust free agent market, so if you don鈥檛 want to go to New York or Los Angeles, you have a realistic opportunity to get a viable free agent contract.鈥�
Fans have responded positively to MLB’s changes in the 2020s, which include in 2022, in 2023 and an for strike zone decisions this year.
鈥淲e got that momentum by listening to our fans and making changes that, candidly, the MLBPA was not interested in,鈥� Manfred said. 鈥淭hose changes have paid off in terms of creating that momentum, and the best way to lose momentum is to stand still.鈥�
No small-market team has won the World Series since the . The Los Angeles Dodgers, coming off their , had a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a . Cleveland had the lowest payroll at $75.5 million.
鈥淚t defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that gap has the same opportunity to win as the top,鈥� Manfred said. 鈥淭here is no question, OK, that everybody in any sport is not going to win once every 30 or 32 years depending on how many teams you have, but the data in our sport is stark. Your opportunity to make the playoffs if you are a larger-market team is dramatically higher and your opportunity to proceed to the subsequent rounds, that advantage grows with each round.鈥�
Meyer said unions for players in the NFL, NBA and NHL agreed to caps under duress.
鈥淚n one way or the other they were broken or forced into it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 believe that this system is bad for players and would be for generations to come.”
expires Dec. 1 and management is expected to immediately start a lockout, the sport鈥檚 10th work stoppage since 1972. No games have been lost since a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 caused the World Series to be canceled for the first in 90 years.
鈥淭eams in every market across the league can afford to compete,” Meyer said. 鈥淢any of them are choosing not to. From our standpoint, that鈥檚 the biggest problem in the game right now.”
Meyer said owners want a cap to guarantee profits and increase franchise values, a system he called 鈥渟ubsidized mediocrity.鈥�
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want it because they鈥檙e just so concerned about the fans,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f they were so concerned about the fans, they would listen to the fans all across baseball who are literally chanting ‘Sell the team.’ They want their owners to sell the team because they feel they’re not competing.”
Manfred did not want to comment on whether he thought President Donald Trump, who said he supports a cap, would attempt to intervene in bargaining.
鈥淚t would be wildly, wildly inappropriate for me to speculate about what the president of the United States might do or not do in a hypothetical situation,鈥� he said.
Manfred defended MLB’s advertising campaign supporting a cap.
鈥淪ometimes the other side may not be completely accurate or fair in terms of their recitation and what鈥檚 going on,鈥� he said.
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