By Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
As October progressed and the MLB postseason rambled on, it looked like a battle between top-market teams and those in the lower tiers of the league’s payroll.
It was the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had the second-highest payroll, against the Milwaukee Brewers, with the 23rd-highest payroll. The fifth-ranked Toronto Blue Jays faced off against the Seattle Mariners’ 16th-ranked payroll.
While the Mariners and Brewers put together successful seasons, their dreams of making it to the World Series were crushed by the two baseball giants.
And in the World Series, the $321 million-valued Dodgers rallied back with home runs in the eighth and ninth innings to tie the game at four. Dodgers catcher Will Smith cemented the series with a go-ahead solo home run in the 11th inning. Los Angeles became the first team since the New York Yankees in 1998-2000 to win back-to-back World Series.
It was a captivating series with multiple superstars and a game-seven 51 million viewers — the most since 1991. It was also a win for the big-market teams.
The series has pushed the league toward an impending lockout after the 2026 season.
Baseball is the only one of the four major North American sports leagues to not have a salary cap, leading to some of the most lucrative contracts in sports, like Mets outfielder Juan Soto’s 15-year, $765 million deal.
The salary cap has long been a hotly debated topic across the MLB. The league’s owners and the Players’ Association are on opposite sides of the issue. The owners want to implement a salary cap like the rest of the leagues, while the players do not want to be limited in what they can earn.
The MLB’s collective bargaining agreement expires in Dec. 2026, which is when the problem can come to a point and force baseball into its first major labor stoppage since the 1994-95 strike.
The owners see the Dodgers winning two straight championships as a sign to level the playing field by limiting the money teams have available to pay their players. The MLBPA insists that the owners, especially for smaller-market teams, fork over more of their earnings to compete with teams like the Dodgers and Blue Jays.
There were 15 teams whose total payroll was below $150 million this season, while the Mets and Dodgers were the only two organizations to dish out more than $300 million.
It seems every season that the top teams spend more, and the bottom end lags. As pay disparities continue to increase in baseball, the divide between the owners and players grows wider and more cavernous.
While the billionaire owners and millionaire players bicker over where money should go, the fan is the one who suffers.
Fans over the past few years have been getting priced out of attending professional sports games, with the average ticket price for football at $297, basketball at $165, hockey at $146 and baseball at $79.
Fans are becoming more discouraged or unable to go watch their favorite teams due to high prices. A lockout could send a message to the fans and viewers that they are not as important to the players and organizations as they were led to believe.
The two sides appear willing to strip baseball’s faithful from the game to pursue their own financial interests.
Baseball’s per-game attendance dropped 20% after the 1994-95 strike that waded into the argument of a salary cap. If history repeats itself, MLB will need to fight tooth and nail to bring fans back.
It seems as though baseball is on a crash course for a lockout following the 2026 season, and the fans will be the ones to pay for it.
