A labor showdown appears increasingly likely in Major League Baseball, with the league’s new players union chief warning that a lockout ahead of the 2026 season is “all but guaranteed” as owners continue to push for a salary cap and other structural changes the union has long opposed.
Bruce Meyer, the recently appointed executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, made the comments in his first extended public remarks since taking over the role. Speaking candidly about the state of labor relations, Meyer said the gap between players and owners remains wide with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire after the 2026 season.
“A lockout is all but guaranteed,” Meyer said, according to multiple reports. “That’s not because players want it. It’s because of where the owners are.”
Meyer, a longtime labor attorney who replaced Tony Clark following his stunning resignation earlier this week, said the union is preparing for a contentious negotiation cycle rooted in fundamental disagreements over how the sport is structured and how revenue is distributed. Central to that divide is renewed interest among some owners in implementing a salary cap, a concept the MLBPA has consistently rejected for decades.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has not publicly endorsed a formal salary cap, but he has acknowledged that owners are increasingly focused on what they describe as competitive balance concerns. Manfred has previously stated that the current economic system creates “significant disparities” between teams and that ownership wants mechanisms to control payroll growth.
“There are clubs that feel strongly that the current system is not working,” Manfred said earlier this year when discussing long term labor issues. “That’s something that’s going to be part of the conversation.”
For the players union, that conversation is a nonstarter.
Meyer said any proposal that limits player earnings through a hard cap or similar structure would be met with strong resistance. “The idea of a salary cap is fundamentally inconsistent with free market principles and player rights,” Meyer said. “It’s not something players are going to agree to.”
Several team owners have been more direct in recent months, privately and publicly signaling that cost controls are a priority as player salaries continue to rise alongside league revenues. Some ownership groups argue that without a cap, smaller market teams struggle to compete, while the union counters that revenue sharing already addresses those concerns and that owners are not obligated to spend the money they receive.
The current CBA, signed in 2022 after a lockout that delayed spring training, runs through the 2026 season. That agreement included modest changes to minimum salaries, service time rules, and the competitive balance tax, but did not address the broader structural issues now resurfacing.
Meyer said the union is preparing for the possibility that owners will once again initiate a lockout once the agreement expires. Under MLB rules, a lockout is imposed by ownership, not players, and would halt free agency, trades, and all formal team activities.
The commissioner’s office declined to comment directly on Meyer’s remarks, but league sources have indicated that owners are expected to formally raise salary cap concepts during early bargaining sessions. That move alone is likely to harden positions on both sides.
With billions in revenue at stake and philosophical differences over how the sport should operate, the path to a smooth negotiation appears narrow. As Meyer bluntly put it, the players are not the ones pushing baseball toward a lockout — but they are preparing for one anyway.
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