Manfred: Dodgers doing what the system allows

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday called payroll disparity a principal concern throughout the industry but would not necessarily commit to a salary cap as a central point of negotiations leading up to the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have stoked concerns about payroll disparity with their spending over the past two offseasons, during which they signed five players to nine-figure contracts — Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Will Smith and Tyler Glasnow, the latter two by virtue of extensions.

Speaking during a spring training media event, Manfred reiterated prior comments while saying the Dodgers have “gone out and done everything possible, always within the rules that currently exist, to put the best possible team on the field, and I think that’s great for the game.” But he acknowledged that fans and owners have expressed concern about their ability to blow other teams away monetarily.

The Dodgers’ competitive-balance-tax payroll is currently estimated at about $392 million, well beyond the highest threshold, according to Spotrac. Only the New York Mets, a distant second at roughly $321 million, have even cracked $300 million. And while offseason spending has reached $4.6 billion, the Dodgers and Mets have accounted for nearly a quarter of that total. Eight teams, meanwhile, spent $50 million or less this winter.

“Disparity should be, it certainly is, at the top of my list of concerns about what’s occurring in the sport,” Manfred said. “When I say I can’t be critical of the Dodgers — they’re doing what the system allows. If I’m gonna be critical of somebody, it’s not gonna be the Dodgers. It’s gonna be the system.”

The current Dodgers have often been compared to the New York Yankees teams of the 2000s that, under late owner George Steinbrenner, were commonly referred to as “The Evil Empire” for their ability to continually sign star players. But Manfred said these Dodgers are “probably more profitable on a percentage basis than the old Yankees teams were — meaning it could be more sustainable, so it is more of a problem.”

On top of residing in a major market and coming off a World Series championship, the Dodgers boast a regional-cable deal that pays them about $334 million annually at a time when teams continue to fall out of their local-media contracts. They also benefit greatly from Ohtani, who deferred $680 million of his $700 million contract and has brought in massive revenue streams from Japan. The Dodgers have responded by investing the additional money back into their roster, making owners of even major-market teams such as the Yankees and Chicago Cubs complain about their inability to keep up.

It has all worked to push MLB’s long-held desire for a salary cap back to the forefront. Given that the MLB Players Association has been adamant it would never agree to one, it has also led to widespread concern about a lockout or a work stoppage after the current CBA expires in December 2026. The sides are expected to begin negotiations a year in advance, and payroll disparity — tied strongly to the fading traditional-cable model and MLB’s hopes of fitting local media into a national umbrella — will undoubtedly become a hot-button issue.

“I’m not gonna get into what the answer is,” Manfred said when asked whether he would seek a salary cap in the next round of bargaining. “We’re a year away. I have owners with really strongly held views that I need to coalesce into a position that we’ll ultimately take to the MLBPA. I don’t think starting that debate publicly is a good start. Whatever we settle on, we’re gonna present in the collective bargaining process and try to handle it privately in order to get a deal.”

Manfred addressed many topics in his wide-ranging media availability, which lasted close to half an hour, including:

• Manfred recently toured Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California, which will house the A’s for at least the next three years, and said the level of excitement within the community for a major league team is “palpable.” He added that the timeline for the A’s new ballpark in Las Vegas has not changed. “I believe we’re gonna be on time to go in 2028,” he said.

• Manfred said he believes the Cubs would make a “good host” for the All-Star Game, which has not come to Wrigley Field since 1990, but did not say whether there has been any progress in talks with city officials about closing down the streets around the ballpark for the event, which MLB and the Cubs consider a prerequisite. The Cubs are pushing to host the All-Star Game as early as 2027, the next available date.

• Manfred reiterated his belief that a separate draft is the best remedy to clean up some of the corruption that occurs on the international market, particularly in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, where pre-deals, performance-enhancing drug use and age fraud have become especially prevalent in recent years. “The transparency of a draft, the inability to make secret deals because you don’t know who’s gonna draft whom, is really the best systemic approach,” he said.

• Manfred said the San Diego Padres, who were previously in danger of violating MLB’s debt-service requirement, have “really improved their revenue situation dramatically.” Manfred said John Seidler, who was recently approved as the Padres’ control person amid litigation from the late Peter Seidler’s widow, “is committed to the Padres long term” and “shares the kind of vision” that Peter Seidler, one of his brothers, had for the team.

• Manfred called the loss of local media deals a “temporal” problem that he believes will eventually affect every team, even the big-market clubs with contracts that are currently secure. He added that the issue won’t be addressed significantly until, at the earliest, after the 2028 season, when MLB’s prominent national deals expire.

“I do think baseball needs to alter its approach in advance of those negotiations,” Manfred said. “I think we need more central control over all the rights, whether they’re traditionally regarded as national or local, and we should be making an effort to make our product more national, because those national games are worth a lot more than games that are sold only in the local market.”

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