Major League Baseball wants to rewire the league’s finances by introducing a salary cap.
With a hard limit of $245.3m being proposed, owners of MLB franchises are almost universally in favour.
That is despite the fact that 10 franchises currently fall outside those parameters, with a $446m gap between the highest and lowest payrolls across the National League and the American League.
Unsurprisingly, most players, agents and union bosses are strongly opposed.
Some league stars – the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Juan Soto, whose annual earnings range from $50m to $70m – could suck up 20-35 per cent of an MLB team’s cap allowance in one swoop, even before bonuses and deferred payments.
President Donald Trump, who appears to be in favour of a salary cap, has hinted he could step in if all parties cannot agree a deal, though MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has distanced himself from that eventuality.
Ahead of the All-Star game in Philadelphia last week, the subject of the salary cap proposal was high on the agenda on the bleachers, in the locker rooms and in the smoke-filled boardrooms and corporate hospitality suites.
And MLB has now opened a new front in this labor war, with the fans being targeted in the PR push to overthrow the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)
MLB ‘going for the jugular’ in salary cap pitch to fans
In recent weeks, MLB has rolled out a large campaign across social media and its own in-house media channels targeting fans.
With the slogan “level the playing field”, MLB’s campaign suggests that 79 per cent of fans support a salary cap and features vox pop-style interviews with fans who are in favour.
Speaking to respected industry publication Sports Business Journal, Jeff Hunt, a media strategy veteran and founding partner of Legend Labs, said: “It’s a very sophisticated, politically influenced approach. There’s a winner and a loser, and you go right for the jugular.
“You try to get the public on your side and get ahead of it. “Whether it works or not, whether it’s right or not, it’s a smart and aggressive strategy.”
The threat of a lockout in 2027, meanwhile, is still looming.
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