Major League Baseball is headed to a Civil War.
Once the final pitch of the 2026 World Series is thrown, Major League Baseball, represented by all 30 team owners, league executives and club officials, will begin labor negotiations with the MLB Players Association.
All offseason – and potentially well into the 2027 season – the two parties will debate over the contents of the league’s next Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA is the foremost governing contract of baseball, determining everything from players’ contract structures to postseason format.
The current CBA, which the two sides update every half-decade or so, expires at midnight on Dec. 1. What makes the upcoming negotiations far more contentious is that the owners are pushing for a hard salary cap.
The last time the league attempted to implement a salary cap, a World Series got canceled.
Here are the latest proposals.
MLB Wants to Shorten the Season to 154 Games
During the course of the season, both the owners and the MLBPA have submitted various proposals for the upcoming CBA. On Thursday, MLB offered a handful of new rules that would change the structure of baseball as we know it.
The first was to shorten the regular season from 162 games to 154.
The main reason was to ensure that each team got one off-day per week during the season. With the current schedule of 162 games over six months, teams can play up to 17 consecutive days, including travel.
Although this change would be positive for general player well-being and potentially limit injuries, this really is a monumental alteration.
Now the idea of a team winning the arbitrary 100 games would become far more difficult. It also changes players’ pursuit of MLB single-season milestones and baseball history. If the season is shortened, an asterisk would be needed on every “old” record.
That said, this proposal may be easier for the MLBPA to accept than others on the table. Players’ well-being is enough to sacrifice 100-win teams and single-season records.
Even if both sides agree, the change wouldn’t take effect until 2029. It would end a regular-season system that stood for 66 years.
The Highest Seed Could Pick Its Playoff Opponent
Major League Baseball also proposed two changes to the current postseason format.
The 2022 CBA introduced the Wild Card Series and expanded the playoff field from 10 teams to 12. MLB’s latest submission wouldn’t change the playoff field itself, but would change a lot of playoff matchups.
The first was to make each Division Series a best-of-seven.
Since the ALDS and NLDS were introduced in 1995, they’ve been best-of-fives. This change would add more playoff games and make up for the lost games if the season shrank to 154.
Most fans would welcome the change, but the other proposal is more divisive. MLB also offered that the highest seed would get to select their opponent in the Wild Card and Division series.
This would be interesting, to say the least.
This means the worst division winner in each league, who misses out on the bye, would get to pick which Wild Card team to face. Three Wild Card teams make it each year: the three best non-division winners. But it doesn’t stop there.
Then, whoever ended with the best record in each league would get to pick which Wild Card winner to face in the Divisional Series. This is an interesting way to address reseeding.
The way the bracket was formatted made the two best teams in the American League face off in the ALDS. The Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees ran the table all year. Instead of what could’ve been a fun ALCS, they met in a best-of-five.
The Rays swept the Yankees in three games, but many felt the matchup deserved a longer series.
The Salary Cap Fight Is the One That Could Shut Baseball Down
Although these are the latest in the CBA proposals, they pale in comparison to the real fight. The league is still pushing for a salary cap.
No matter what happens, a lockout is imminent. Unlike 1994, when the players went on strike and the World Series was canceled, this time the owners will initiate the lockout.
The owners reintroduced the idea of a salary cap in May, starting with a hard payroll cap of $245.3 million. If this stood in 2026, seven teams would need to shed payroll. Those clubs are the Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies, Blue Jays, Braves and Cubs.
The league also introduced a hard salary floor, all in an effort to minimize the disparity in team payrolls. The owners set that mark at $171.2 million, which would force half the league to increase spending.
The players’ association took the opposite approach. They submitted to raise players’ minimum salaries and introduced a “Competitive Integrity Tax.” This would essentially punish teams for not spending enough money by forfeiting some of their league revenue-sharing income.
All in all, whichever way this offseason unfolds, it will be bad for baseball. The 1994 strike nearly killed the sport entirely.
Major League Baseball is in such a positive space right now. It’s competing with the NBA in viewership and has the most international outreach the sport has ever received. But this winter will not be pretty.
MLB is already sending out memos to club officials telling them to not send Christmas cards to players’ families. MLB will wipe all players’ faces and profiles from its official website.
No matter what happens, at the end of the day, the real losers are the fans.
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