Will the New York Mets and New York Yankees benefit from implementing a strict salary cap in MLB’s next collective bargaining agreement? An interesting new report details some reasons why this would help a pair of NY baseball teams.
There has been much speculation over the past few months that MLB is headed for some bad times this time next year. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ dominance of the league with the most expensive roster in league history and consecutive World Series wins has disappointed many in the game. Especially owners of small and mid-market clubs.
Having more than a billion dollars in deferred contracts and other teams like the NY Mets and Blue Jays making massive deals in recent years has led to the perception that MLB needs a strict limit to prevent spending from getting out of control.
In theory, this idea would harm wealthy clubs as it would reduce their biggest spending power. However, a new report from The Athletic’s Evan Dreilich suggests that a hard cap in the next CBA would be a good thing for teams like the NY Mets and NY Yankees.
New MLB hard cap could have a maximum of $240 million
“Teams like the LA Dodgers, who have a league-high $402 million payroll, the NY Mets and the NY Yankees would really benefit from their spending cap.
“‘The biggest beneficiaries will be the biggest markets, and the biggest losers will be the small markets,'” a management source told Dreilich. ‘…the major markets will do well because there won’t be any pressure from fans to make a $300-400 million payroll and so on.’
Dreilich suggests the potential hard cap could exceed $240 million and go as low as $160 million.
Young stars could enter MLB free agency soon
Another interesting aspect of adding the hard cap is that changes players want to other contract guidelines will benefit them in different ways.
“The free agency and arbitration processes will also change,” Drelich suggests. “In the current system, it would be almost unthinkable for owners to let players become free agents before the current waiting time of six years, or enter arbitration before the current standard of three years. But a cap could reduce those waiting times.”
New York has always been a top destination for free agents, especially because of the prestige of the Yankees brand. Short rookie contracts and arbitration mean the young star will be available to a pair of NY clubs very quickly.
NY Mets and NY Yankees could get out of bad contracts early
According to Dreilich, another change to contracts that could come with the new hard cap is that deals may no longer be guaranteed. In a hard cap system, the payroll limit is tied to the total revenue from the league. This makes it difficult to make guaranteed deals.
Although this is not a lock, it is a possibility, meaning the NY Mets and NY Yankees will be able to get out of bad deals sooner than they do now.
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