Commissioner Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball's 30 team owners want to limit the length of player contracts, Manfred reiterated at the Sports Business Journal's World Congress of Sports Conference on Tuesday (per The Athletic). MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark made it clear the players union would not accept such a proposal.
Here are the details from The Athletic:
"A reform that has been of interest to ownership for a number of years is a limitation of contract length," Manfred said Tuesday evening at Sports Business Journal's World Congress of Sports conference in Los Angeles. "Obviously players love it, it gives them financial security for a very long period of time. The difficulty — and I think players will come to appreciate this as time goes by — those contracts result in a transfer from the current stars to yesterday's stars. At some point, that has to be true. And I think it is an issue that is important for us to stay focused on, because it creates inflexibility that affects the quality of the teams that you put on the field."
"The public statements from Rob Manfred about the owners' desire to limit guaranteed contracts is just one more in a series of statements attacking fundamental aspects of baseball's free market system and the freedom of clubs and players to structure deals in the best interests of all parties," Clark said in a statement to The Athletic. "The ability of individual clubs to act in their own self-interest in determining how best to put an exciting product on the field for their fans is not something that should be restricted. Anyone who believes that players would ever endorse an assault by management on guaranteed contracts is badly mistaken."
There are currently no limits on MLB contracts. Teams can pay as much as they want for as long as they want, though the competitive balance tax system (i.e. luxury tax) acts as a soft salary cap. There have been 23 contracts of at least 10 years in baseball history and five were handed out within the last nine months:
- Julio Rodríguez, Mariners: 13 years and $210 million (Aug. 2022)
- Manny Machado, Padres: 11 years and $350 million (Feb. 2023)
- Rafael Devers, Red Sox: 11 years and $331 million (Jan. 2023)
- Trea Turner, Phillies: 11 years and $300 million (Dec. 2022)
- Xander Bogaerts, Padres: 11 years and $280 million (Dec. 2022)
Reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge signed a nine-year, $360 million contract with the Yankees this past offseason as well. In several cases, specifically with Turner and Bogaerts, the contracts were stretched out over a longer time to lower the player's CBT number. The CBT is based on the average annual value of the player's contract. More years equal fewer dollars per year.
MLB is the only one of the four major North American sports without a salary cap and the union has staunchly opposed a hard cap and limits on player contracts. And to be clear, the owners wanting to limit contract length is nothing new. They have floated that idea in the past. Manfred only reiterated something we already knew.
NBA contracts are limited to four years, though the Designated Player rule allows each team to sign up to two players to a five-year contract. NHL contracts are limited to eight years when the player re-signs with his team and seven years when he joins a new team.
Baseball's current collective bargaining agreement expires following the 2026 season. Last winter the owners locked out the players for 99 days, the second-longest work stoppage in baseball history behind the 1994-95 players' strike (232 days).
