The Josh Innes Show - MLBPA Says Salary Cap Will Hurt Fans: Part 1

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

The MLBPA is making the case that a salary cap will actually hurt fans in the long run. I understand why they are selling this. They've been able to make as much as possible forever. But, this point is wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Headline reads, MLBPA-Exexec responds to poll calling for MLB salary cap says it would be worse for fans. Oh, would it now? All right. Well, let's get into that. we will do so after these words. All right. So here we go. Let's read this story.

The athletic, do better, Josh, a sack of shit. The athletic recently polled MLB fans and found that 68% prefer a salary cap and salary floor, which is also one of the main goals of league owners as they negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with players. In the past, a cap system has been a complete non-starter for the players, and MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer believes it would be bad for fans. I'm curious, you have my attention here, Brucey. Why would it be bad? Tell me this, why would a salary cap be bad for baseball?

Now, I know why it would be bad for you, and I know why it would be bad for players. And to a degree, I understand where they're coming from. if you've been basically allowed to make as much money as you possibly can and go play for the handful of teams who are willing to pay you that much money, why would you want to hurt yourself? So I get where they're coming from. I understand it. And I wouldn't expect athletes to see the greater good. That's not their job. The job of Bryce Harper, the job of Frumber Valdez, the job of Justin Verlander.

The job of these guys is not to look at the greater good of the game. and they never will anyway because guys don't look at things that way. But the job of these guys is to make as much money as they can for as long as they can and be set for life. Now, the average person would go, get a $10 million contract and you'd be set for life. But that's not the way the world works. The way the world works is you're out there trying to make as much money as you possibly can for as long as you can and be set for life. So if you've been giving somebody this for this long, why would they ever consider? consider going the other way.

It kind of goes back to our conversation, I guess it was last week when we talked about Gavin Newsom. And Gavin Newsom's thought was, hey, we need to get back to sort of normal. So all you lesbians and LGBTQA people and trans people, stop using weird shit like pronouns. Cut the shit on the pronouns and let's try to be normal. Well, your party has spent 15 years telling these people that it is normal to go by pronouns. And it is normal to lop off your dick and become a lady. and it is normal to have your kids pick their fucking gender.

Like, you've allowed this for so long. Why would these people ever give it back? You've given them this power. Why would they ever just go, you know what? You're absolutely right. It's weird that I have all this control over all this stuff in my opinion matters so much. It's the same reason why there's always going to be social media. You've empowered people on social media for so long.

Why would they ever want to give that power back? And it's the same concept that you look at with this. But let's hear what this gentleman, Bruce Meyer, has to say. There are also a lot of fans who think their owner should sell their teams, he told the athletic, in response to the fan poll. And for some reason, they don't seem to want to do that. We're very cognizant of the fans and actually think a salary cap system is worse for fans because it basically prevents teams that want to make their team better from doing so. It basically is an ultimate restriction on competition and the ability of teams to do what they think is best to build the best team for their fans. All right, let's break that down.

There's just a reality. And the reality is, yes, the people that own these baseball teams are all pretty much billionaires. And all of their teams are worth at minimum, what, a billion, at a billion box. Let's see. Let me look this up. Ranking baseball teams by worth, like by value. Let's see what that is. All right.

This is from March of 2025. All right. So let's, the most valuable teams in baseball. Obviously, and this is where my point comes in and all of this, although these teams are all worth a shitload of money and probably all worth over a billion dollars easily if I had to guess, even like the shit into the stick teams like the pirates and the Marlins and these type of teams, they're all probably worth well over a billion dollars, right? But, well, let's just look at this list. So the Yankees are worth $8.2 billion. The Dodgers 6.8, the Red Sox 4.8. The Cub. 4.6, San Francisco 4. The Mets 3.2, the Phillies 3.1. The Braves 3. The Astros 2.8.

The Angels 10. So until you get to the Angels and the Cardinals, who are at number 10 and 11, and the Cardinals forever were a great, dominant type of franchise. But you start looking at these teams. All of those teams I listed, 1 through 9, are competitive on a year-in, year-out basis, unless you want to count the Mets. But they all spend money, and there are all pretty much competitive teams. So the teams that are worth the most money are the teams that are the most competitive, right? Why are they the most competitive? Because they're worth the most money. Why are they worth the most money? Because they're generally speaking in large cities. They have big

television deals. There's a lot of factors that go into this. But they're also able to spend a ton of cash because they have a ton of cash. If you look at the bottom of the list here, the team with the least value is the Miami Marlins. They're worth just over a billion dollars. just over a billion. They are 30th. They don't spend a ton of cash. Tampa doesn't spend a ton of cash. Kansas City doesn't spend a ton of cash.

They're worth just over a billion. All of these franchises are worth a shit ton of money. At least a billion dollars in most instances, even Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Those are teams that don't spend. Now, here's where, to me, it becomes a more interesting discussion. I do believe you need to have a salary cap and you do need to have a salary floor. because if you look at the most successful league in all of professional sports, it's the NFL. Why is it the most successful league in all of sports?

Well, you could argue because people are addicted to football. That's your argument? I'm okay with that argument. If you want to tell me that, hey, it works because people need football in their lives because we're addicted to it. That's one. But it works because every season you can have a Green Bay Packers in the smallest town that hosts a professional team in all of professional sports. that on a year-in, year-out basis is a consistent player. You can have Chicago on the same playing field as Green Bay.

You can have Tampa, who in baseball, bottom of the barrel, you can have Tampa on the same playing field as New York. You can have New Orleans on the same playing field as L.A. Now, if we're being realistic, the salary cap is not even real. Teams can always find their way around it. So when people make the argument that, well, baseball is, it needs a salary cap and look at the NFL. the argument that I just made, which I think is true, but also the salary cap is fake. People find ways around it.

They rework money. They defer money. There's a lot of fucking ways. Or they move money back. Are they making an assigning bonus for this year? There are ways around it. The salary cap is not real. But it exists.

And these teams are for the most part competitive. And they want to be competitive and they need to be competitive. There are two things that are really bad for baseball. The lack of a salary cap and a salary floor and the fact that teams can just suckle off of the overall teat of the money that's being generated by baseball and they don't have to try to field a winning team. Like you look at Pittsburgh. I guarantee you Pittsburgh makes a shitload of money despite the fact nobody goes to the games because they can't field a competitive team. Teams like Tampa who try to be competitive but they don't spend a ton of cash. I bet Tampa makes a shitload of money.

That's the other downfall. There are two big issues that you have to deal with. The teams that are at the bottom of the barrel that have owners that just want to make fucking money and not reinvest it, that's no good. Well, that's where the salary floor comes in. On the other hand, there are the teams that are really bad for baseball that have billion-dollar rights deals for their television and radio and media that can go out in L.A. and buy every good player. And the Mets can buy all the good players and the Cubs can buy all the good players. That's where a cap and a floor matter. I've just defined it for you.

The floor is good because you need organizations that are just hoarding cash away and buying no good players. You need them to be forced to spend. Now, it doesn't mean they'll spend it well. That's the other part you run into that makes this whole argument more nuanced. It's nuanced because there's no guarantee they go out and spend. You know, say the salary cap is this and the floor is this. There's no guarantee they go out and spend the amount of cash that, you know, they'll spend the amount of cash they're forced to spend, but will it be good cash?

You know, will they just go out and throw money at some guy because, you know, they'll overpay some dude because they need to hit the salary cap floor? Are they going to scout well? Are they going to sign players well? Is their GM any good? There's a lot of factors in it and it's not just as simple as cap and floor. But a cap and floor, to me, is needed because a cap and a floor will at least give you a baseline. You can't force a team to have a good GM. You can't force a team to have a good scouting department. You can't have a force a team to have an owner that gives a shit about winning. But you can't force a team. force a team to spend the amount of money needed to be spent to at least in theory field a competitive team now