Nataley Davis | features editor

I recently immersed myself in the world of Major League Baseball (MLB) when I had the opportunity to work as a fan ambassador for the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field this summer.

Two of my coworkers were talking about whether or not they would be back for next season and one of them replied: “If there is a next season.”

I immediately cocked my head and asked what they meant by that.

I learned MLB is the only major sports league in North America without a salary cap or salary floor system. And the league is struggling to come to an agreement about the proposed offer for 2027.

Before working for the Guardians, I had been to numerous games for fun with little care for the sport. Going to the stadium is entertaining and all, but you’d never catch me checking the score or turning on the game while it’s live on TV.

Although I’m new to the elaborate business of professional sports, it’s an environment I could see myself working in for my future career. 

I was a theatre kid throughout my entire childhood (which explains why I’m just now understanding sports). Working at the stadium, I realized the game of baseball is kind of like a show.

Sure, the game isn’t pre-scripted with who wins and how the game goes. But the fast-paced environment and ultimate goal for the audience to have fun or feel something honestly brought me back to how I felt on stage.

So, as a self-identified “arts person” (whatever that means), I was enjoying myself greatly, but learning and hearing a lot about the world of baseball for the first time.

For someone like me who had never heard of this salary-cap stuff before, here’s the breakdown:

MLB’s five-year labor contract expires in December.

The league’s initial proposal was a salary cap for 2027 that would place a limit on how much a team can spend on its player payroll, which would be set at $245.3 million, according to MLB. The salary floor, or the minimum each team is required to spend, would be set at $171.2 million.

Seems perfectly reasonable, right?

Apparently not.

Some all-stars, such as Pittsburgh’s own Paul Skenes, have their issues with the agreement.

“Both sides kind of have their line that they’re not going to cross,” Skenes told ESPN. “Whether that results in missing games or missing a season, we’ll see.”

Juan Soto, who signed a record $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets as a free agent after the 2024 season, told ESPN he is not in favor of a salary cap.

“Yeah, that sucks,” Soto said. “It shouldn’t be there.”

To be frank, when I heard these numbers and that there was trouble reaching an agreement on them, I was appalled.

In a world that is increasingly normalizing billionaires while the poor get poorer, a player’s salary getting reduced from hundreds of millions to fewer hundreds of millions, should be the least of our concerns.

My first thought when hearing murmurings about players potentially not being able to play next season was, that’s never gonna happen.

The amount of money lost for these corporations and employees would be staggering.

But to my surprise, this isn’t the first time a season was threatened because MLB has had trouble reaching an agreement on a proposed salary cap.

In 1994, a seven-and-a-half-month strike over failure to agree on a deal caused the cancellation of the World Series.

I can’t help but think of the hundreds of employees who lost their paychecks over this.

At first, the greed in this situation just made me see red, but I started to understand the argument a bit more when I read further into it.

The Major League Baseball Players Association Interim Executive Director Bruce Meyer said in a statment the agreement isn’t in the interest of creating more realistic salaries, just directing the flow of cash.

“Billionaire owners are not seeking to cap their profits or asset values, only player salaries,” Meyer said. “This isn’t out of generosity or a desire to protect the game’s well-being. It’s a play to control costs, increase profits and maximize franchise values — all at the expense of players past, present and future.”

So, I guess I can see the players’ side in this a little.

They are technically the ones bringing in the revenue for America’s favorite pastime and should be paid what they are worth.

I think I’m just looking at this from a larger societal lens, especially having the perspective of being one in hundreds of employees at a large ballpark.

It’s easy to feel like just a pawn in the game of professional sports, contributing to these players making more in one season than we will in our whole lives.

These are unfathomable numbers for the average Joe.

I don’t know whether next season will be affected by this salary agreement, but I think it’s an opportunity to look at wage gaps and what society values as the highest paying professions.

Nataley Davis can be reached at davisn5@duq.edu