- 2 days ago
Is there a labor dispute and salary cap in MLBs' future?
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00:07Welcome back in here to Sports Daily, Jacob Albrock, TJ Cleland with you. Glad to be with
00:12you on this Monday. Andrew texted into the show. We talked about why Major League Baseball
00:18might be interested in making the change of no more high school players. Says maybe it creates
00:24more interest in high school players via the college level, gets those college fan bases
00:30then more into Major League Baseball. I imagine there's some risk aversion there as well, but
00:40yeah, we would certainly be more familiar with those players. You get more pro-ready prospects.
00:47Would Bobby Witt Jr.'s development be hindered in any way by playing
00:54college baseball? I don't think so. I mean, that's the bigger question. If college baseball
00:59is going to get better, how much different will college baseball be than AA baseball, right?
01:05Correct. And I think, and in a lot of ways, you know, you might be better off in college
01:10baseball as far as development goes. The question will become the money. How do you then, and it'll
01:17trickle up, obviously, but if you're Bobby Witt Jr., for instance, you're very likely leaving money on
01:24the table. I know we're in the NIL era, but not to the, you know, the level of some draft
01:29bonuses
01:31kids are able to earn at a much younger age. There would be a much more prove-it component to
01:36it,
01:37which I guess sort of cuts both ways, right? It would be better for college players to have the
01:42opportunity to get out there and prove it, but it wouldn't be as good for the high school
01:46prodigy that, you know, flames out in a few years. They don't have that nest egg they've built up.
01:52Let's parlay that into some of the- Hold on, hold on, hold on. Speaking of headlines
01:56that I didn't know about, you can text into the show.
01:59Yeah. If you happen to have our numbers, sure. Yeah. We get text messages from our buddy,
02:04Brandon. All right. All right. How's it say? Do we have a text line?
02:07We don't have a text line, but if you are, if you want to send us your thoughts and that's
02:12one of
02:12the methods, absolutely. You can text the show. I mean, I'm not going to throw myself on that.
02:16You got to give your number out?
02:18I think Kevin Saul did that famously when we first had him on two, three years ago. I'm like,
02:23oh, okay. I'm going to do that.
02:24That is number on air.
02:26Yeah. That's good. You can get in touch with us any way that you would like.
02:31Send us a letter.
02:32Touch with us. You can send us a letter. We get letters to the TV station quite frequently,
02:36actually. Uh, you can, the, my favorite thing is telling people about the people that reach out
02:41to the TV station and you know, people's reaction are people call the TV station. Like what?
02:47Shout out to answer back 12. We brought back the Roger Cornish. My favorite thing that,
02:55you know, 12 news KWCH has ever done was Roger Cornish's answer back, which was basically
03:01just viewer commentary every Sunday night. Uh, we'd be in, it would be in the 10 o'clock news
03:07for sports. Sunday is my favorite time of the week. Uh, Michael Schwenke and I brought that back
03:11to 12 news connected where many of you are watching us right now and you can find it in there.
03:15We do.
03:16And it's fun. It is a fun segment to do because one thing you learn quickly in TV is you
03:21better have
03:21a thick skin. Unbelievable. Letters, letters, calls, emails. They come, they come from every direction.
03:27Yeah. However, and now it's opened up to social media. That's right. If there was a chance that
03:33somebody can tell you that you suck at your job, they will, or that you look funny or that. I
03:38mean,
03:39there's a, you, you would be surprised that maybe not. And then, so we, we air our dirty laundry
03:44there on answer back. So, uh, yeah, if you've, if you, any way you want to get in touch with
03:48these
03:49shows, we'll, we'll take it. But so we're looking at this major league baseball proposal. Obviously the
03:54salary cap becomes the biggest piece of it. Uh, it's going to get contentious. We remember
04:00Bryce Harper and Rob Manfred's run in. Was that the world baseball classic or something? Maybe it's
04:06the, maybe it was spring training. I don't remember. Um, there, I, I would say the potential of a lockout
04:12for 2027 is pretty high, pretty high. Um, the players don't want a salary cap. Um,
04:22I think for fans, a salary cap and floor, which is what baseball has proposed is better for the
04:28sport. I think that for the good of the game, eventually you get there. Uh, they have offered
04:37with that a 50, 50 revenue split, uh, this draft overhaul we've seen. I'm not sure if they have
04:44offered up any sort of, uh, faster timeline for players to hit free agency, which would be good.
04:55Um, I mean, for players, it would be good. Is it enough? They are, you know, the players want
05:01a doubling of the minimum salary. They, it, I mean, it look, if the, if they can get through a
05:11salary cap and a salary floor, I think, I think major league baseball will do whatever the players
05:15want. Probably. That's the, as we sit here on June 22nd though, I don't think there's a single
05:21person in the world that thinks they're going to get this done. Listen, if it's ever going to get
05:27done, it's going to have to, you're going to have to just rip the bandaid off. How long can the
05:33players
05:34lock out? I mean, the reality is I, I, at least my brain takes me to like holistically major league
05:47baseball and these owners are in a better financial position for a lengthy holdout than the players
05:53would be. Yep. Players aren't getting paid. Players are getting older player. Like how long can you stay
05:59unified as players before somebody says to hell with this? I just want to play baseball. Like this
06:05is stupid. Like you can pay me nothing. And I'd like to go play baseball. Um, this, it very much
06:11feels
06:12like, uh, you know, you're in a fight with your significant other or a coworker or something, and you can
06:18feel that it's awkward and they know that it's awkward. Oh, it's way awkward. Yeah. Nobody,
06:24nobody really did. It's kind of keep poking the bear a little bit and like, yeah, we put this out
06:27there and then just kind of don't say anything else about it. Nobody says anything. And then we all sit
06:32from the outside and we're like, there is no momentum anywhere. There's nothing going to happen.
06:38The major league baseball players union is the best union. I mean, they have guaranteed salaries. I don't
06:44know enough about basketball structure, I guess, to say that definitively, but baseball has the most
06:50without the cap. Now I, I want, I want the math on it to know if they impose the cap
07:00in the floor.
07:03So if every team had to spin to the floor and you put a cap in, that's, that's the part
07:10I want to know.
07:11Well, okay. If that happens to the players end up getting more money overall, because there's a part
07:21of this too, that I look at and it's like, what's the best thing for the collective of the players,
07:27right? If the cap that they proposed is $245 million right now, there would only be six teams
07:37above the cap. The Mets, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Blue Jays, the Phillies, the Braves. That's it.
07:44Everybody else would be under that cap. Okay. So, you know, I don't know how much that changes
07:50things. I mean, if you took the Dodgers and the Mets out right now, I mean, come on. So, and
07:57that's,
07:57you know, that's because the Dodgers keep cheating the system and hopefully they fix that because they
08:01keep deferring all these salaries, which needs to stop. But if you went and you took the hard floor
08:06of 171 million, that leaves you another 15 teams that would have to spend more. So 15 teams would
08:17have to spend more. You're looking at some of these when it comes to Cleveland, Miami, they're having,
08:24they would be about doubling their payroll. So if you took the 15, that's what I want to know.
08:31And I could, you know, we could do the math, not live on the air, but take a minute. Like
08:36if
08:37everybody had to come up to one, what did we say? One, uh, one 71, what is the total amount
08:47of dollars
08:47to get everyone currently under one 71 up to one 71? And what would be the total dollars lost to
08:56get
08:56everyone over two 45 down to two 45? I think there'd be more money in the pool that way.
09:04I agree now. So then I look at this and I'm not taking a side in this necessarily, but I
09:12look at it
09:13then and I say, okay, well, if more total dollars are coming in because you know that teams that are
09:19already above, they're not like, they're not using a salary cap or a salary floor as an excuse to come
09:28down because there's nothing that says they have to be at the level they're at now. They could be
09:33down if they wanted to be down. So the logic that more teams would just aim for the floor is
09:37not,
09:38that doesn't make any sense to me. The big teams are going to want to, they already could do that.
09:43Right. They don't have to spend money. There's 15 of them that are already above the floor anyway,
09:48but it would raise those others and add, I've got, got to imagine it would add more dollars to the
09:53pool total in general. And if you can't, you already have guaranteed salaries. If you, if you were to
10:02say, okay, fine, we want X, Y, Z baseball is going to say yes to all of it because what
10:09baseball wants
10:10more than anything in this, I think is competitive balance. That's what baseball wants. I don't think
10:17it's as much as, Oh, the owners don't want to have to pay us as much. They already do that.
10:23And there's so many that don't raising that floor is, is where it needs to be. I don't,
10:29and I don't think you can implement just a floor and not a cap is if that was the case,
10:34I would say, just do that. Right. Don't, I mean, teams can spend whatever they want,
10:39but I, what I, what it feels to me like is to get to this point where all that the
10:45players focus on
10:46is, well, I don't want to take the biggest salaries down. Cause that would happen, but it's like,
10:52but if everybody's making more money, I agree.
10:56I, I, that's, so I don't, I'm not necessarily siding with, I think a salary cap and a salary
11:02floor would be great for the sport. That's my next question now is, uh, all the things that you just
11:08said, I think that, that puts into the biggest, you know, question, the biggest, you know, fork in
11:13the road of all the things, but where does, where does the general public land on it is the interesting
11:20question because forever in every labor dispute ever, the general public says, well, I'm going
11:26with the players. I'm going with the workers. Right. And that's just, that's just Joe lunchbox,
11:31our boy, Joe lunchbox. He always says that. But in this one, I think that there's a little bit of,
11:36as, as you and I sit here and talk about it, I'm saying, unless you are a fan of the
11:41Dodgers or the
11:42Mets or the Yankees or the teams that you listed, there's no reason that you shouldn't side with the
11:47owners in this. I think, well, it's going to help the Royals. It's going to help a team like
11:51the Royals. Who's the median right about the median, I believe they're a little under, and
11:56it's going to significantly help. If you're a fan of the Marlins or the pirates, I'd be going
12:01ballistic trying to get this past. Spend some money. If you're the Royals right now, it, it would,
12:07it would force another $30 million infused. And, and like, are they under the, are they under the
12:13floor? Yeah, they are. They are 40, but they're about 18th in baseball and they're going to slash
12:19that this, this year, probably. But it, but look, if you're sitting there and you've got that money,
12:27you have to worry less about Bobby with junior leaving because you've got to spend it. Yeah.
12:33So I think, and it's, this would help the pirates. This would help the pirates in the skiing
12:39situation. Like I I'd be banging the table. If I lived in Pittsburgh, the pirates have,
12:44they have a billion good young players and they're not going to be able to keep any of them.
12:47And that's been the problem for the pirates and the A's and those fan bases forever. You want to
12:51know why they, they struck like there's like, why on earth do the guardians have an $80 million
12:57payroll? They're consistently one of the best teams in baseball. I'm telling you, it's not even like,
13:04it, it doesn't mean that you, it means that players can keep our teams can keep their good
13:10players. You don't see in basketball or the NFL nearly as often transcendent talents move teams.
13:17That's why that's my point I was about to make is that in basketball, the free agency, at least
13:22before they added all the weird luxury tax and things that I don't understand anymore back when
13:27it was really fun to follow back with LeBron went to the Lakers. Like that was the peak of trying
13:33to follow NBA free agency, all of the things that were going on there, or even when he went to
13:37the
13:37heat or back to the caps, any of the times, right? Those were so fun because in the NBA, the
13:44cap
13:46puts in the effect that the players aren't going to be Kyle Tucker that want to go to the Dodgers
13:53because they just paid me a boatload of money, right? Those kinds of, and in baseball, it happens
13:57all the time. That's why the Dodgers have so many all-stars because they just fork over a boatload of
14:02money. In the NBA, there's a cap. You can only spend so much. And I think that's why when you
14:07get
14:07into free agency, it's not so much of, well, he's just going to go chase the biggest bag like it
14:12is
14:12in college, funny enough. But it's more so about where do you want to play? That's why LeBron
14:19Cleveland versus Miami is so compelling is that you don't sit there and watch that and say, well,
14:25yeah, he's leaving Cleveland. He's going to Miami. They're going to pay him 500 million more
14:29dollars. And that's what happens in baseball. That's what you deal with every single offseason.
14:33That's why it sucks for Royals fans. That's why we clutch our pearls thinking about the Bobby Witt
14:38deal in four years, whatever, three, four years, whatever it is. If he's saying, well, Yankees
14:43just offered me an $800 million contract, which he would get if he wanted to get it.
14:48Sure. So, and if this goes into effect, you know, you'll limit that and you'll actually get to have
14:54the conversation of does Bobby Witt Jr. want to be in Kansas city or does he want to be somewhere
14:59else? And that's the only factors that you really need to worry about. It's the reason that the chief
15:02wants to be in Kansas city. Of course he does. That's what people have talked about is that
15:08if there wasn't a salary cap in football, the chiefs would never be the chiefs, right? No,
15:14they'd be a small, they'd be a small market team. They would Patrick Mahomes would go get paid
15:19$800 million somewhere else. You'd never get to do the things that you have to do, but they have
15:23to spend a certain amount and they are capped out. And so they've gotten to the point now where they
15:29are getting guys. They can decide. And again, it's a weird example now because the chiefs are a place
15:34everybody wants to come play because they win super bowls, but you get to keep players like Patrick
15:38Mahomes under these rules. I just, I, I get, here's, here's at the end of the day,
15:47we're baseball fans. If it got us to a salary cap, if it got us to this thing,
15:54how much would you be willing to stomach in a labor dispute to get there of not having baseball
16:01as a fan? Yeah. Cause it's going to take it. It's going to take a strike.
16:07I don't know. I mean, as I'm sitting here, I'd be willing to give up a full season for it.
16:12I would
16:12be, I would be shocked if next summer they play more games than the COVID season,
16:20which was like mid July, right? It was in the summer, maybe June.
16:29They're not playing baseball in March or April or may. I know that. No, I think it would maybe take
16:34a full season again. Baseball has so much momentum right now with the rule changes. The game is better.
16:42It's, it's easier to watch. They have major accessibility issues. They've got to solve.
16:48It's too hard to find games. They need to fix that. I'm just trying to think like,
16:53what could baseball give the players to make the players finally just say yes. And why are the
17:02players like if I'm the players, whatever this is, if that's the number that major league baseball,
17:10if those are the numbers, right? If they say, okay, two 45 and a hard four of one 71. I
17:15mean,
17:15the first thing I do is say, no, let's make it 300 and 200. Right. And then you got yourselves
17:22a deal.
17:23Well, that's what I would do. If I was the players, I wouldn't be so hell bent on.
17:29It's no cap ever. Like that's not going to happen.
17:32That to me, see that to me, that's my point about where Joe lunchbox sits on this.
17:37That's the, I mean, that's what the players are bringing into the table. And as an average person
17:41sitting there listening to them saying, you're not going to cap us out because we're going to get
17:44the billion dollar contract. We're going to get there. And we're pretty close, right? Like what's the
17:49latest deal that we got up to? Somebody got like 800 million or something stupid.
17:53Yeah. I don't remember. Uh, show. Hey, got
17:57it's like 700. I think, I think we're going to get it under the current rules. They're going to have
18:03to fix that. If things, if things stay the way that they are, there will be a billion dollar
18:07contract in the next, I mean, two or three years. Yeah. I mean, a guy like Bobby with junior
18:14will be a candidate for something like that. Um, he'd be the, he'd probably be the next,
18:20you know, the, the youth, the ability, all that kind of stuff. But if Shohei didn't get that,
18:25I don't, it's going to take him maybe a generation to get up there to go 30% higher. I
18:30don't know.
18:31I just, it feels like it's coming. And if you're the players get what you can.
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