MLB Salary Cap Standoff: Ken Rosenthal Highlights the Unpleasant Reality

The Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to yet another contract with a superstar on Tuesday, and many people around the MLB world are fed up. LA and starting pitcher Blake Snell agreed to a five-year, $182 million contract, giving the Dodgers another star. The Dodgers are not doing anything wrong, but it is clear that MLB has a problem. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic believes MLB owners will push for a salary cap, however, he also believes that push could lead to an “ugly” situation.

“There are fans in other cities, smaller markets, who say ‘hey, what the heck is going on here? How is one team collecting all of these great players and why is that fair?’ It’s not fair, in a classic sense,” Rosenthal said on Foul Territory. “But the people who call for a salary cap, I will warn you again, that if the owners push for a salary cap, as I expect they will do at the end of the ’26 season, you’re going to have a work stoppage.”

The MLBPA (MLB Players Association) wants players to be able to make as much money as possible. A salary cap would limit that. However, a salary cap would also help the game, as every team in the league would have a realistic chance of signing star players.

Potential MLB salary cap situation could get “ugly”

A work stoppage would obviously be far from ideal. MLB recently had a lockout in 2022 for other reasons. Something similar could happen in 2026 if the owners do indeed push for a salary cap.

It has become clear that a salary cap would help MLB’s current situation, however. The league is not going to benefit when one team is signing all of the star players.

“I always have thought in the past that to have a super-team, or a couple of super-teams, it’s good,” Rosenthal continued. “They’re kind of the villains, everybody shoots for them. If you beat them, wow, what an accomplishment… But there are going to be questions asked because of this deal (Snell-Dodgers contract) and of course the (Shohei) Ohtani and (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto deals as well.

“And there are questions that are going to come up in the next round of negotiations that are going to be disturbing for everybody involved. It’s going to be really interesting to see how this gets handled. I’m not looking forward to it because frankly, in my estimation, it’s going to be ugly.”

The Dodgers are doing everything they can to build a super-team. MLB has no salary cap, or salary floor for that matter, so teams are able to do as they please with only the luxury tax impacting matters.

With deferred money also being involved, MLB will have plenty of questions to answer during the next round of negotiations. Change is needed, but a clear solution will be difficult to find.