Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper stood nostril to nostril with Rob Manfred throughout a gathering between the Main League Baseball commissioner and the staff final week, telling him to “get the f— out of our clubhouse” if Manfred wished to speak in regards to the potential implementation of a wage cap, sources accustomed to the assembly advised ESPN on Monday.
The confrontation got here in a gathering — one of many 30 that Manfred conducts yearly in an effort to enhance his relations with each staff’s gamers — that lasted greater than an hour. Whereas Manfred by no means explicitly stated the phrases “wage cap,” sources stated, the dialogue in regards to the sport’s economics raised the ire of Harper, one among MLB’s most influential gamers and a two-time Nationwide League MVP.
Forward of the expiration of the collective-bargaining settlement between MLB and the MLB Gamers Affiliation on Dec. 1, 2026, a number of homeowners have stumped for a wage cap in MLB, the one main males’s North American sport with out one. The MLBPA vehemently opposes a cap, which it argues serves extra as a instrument to extend franchise values than to reduce the sport’s massive disparity between high- and low-spending groups.
Quiet for almost all of the assembly, Harper, sitting in a chair and holding a bat, finally grew pissed off and stated if MLB have been to suggest a cap and maintain agency to it, gamers “usually are not scared to lose 162 video games,” sources within the assembly advised ESPN. Harper stood up, walked towards the center of the room, confronted as much as Manfred and stated: “If you wish to talk about that, you will get the f— out of our clubhouse.”
Manfred, sources stated, responded that he was “not going to get the f— out of right here,” saying it was necessary to speak about threats to MLB’s enterprise and methods to develop the sport.
Earlier than the scenario additional intensified, veteran outfielder Nick Castellanos tried to defuse the stress, saying: “I’ve extra questions.” The assembly continued, and Harper and Manfred finally shook arms, sources stated, although Harper declined to reply telephone calls from Manfred the following day.
“It was fairly intense, positively passionate,” Castellanos advised ESPN. “Each of ’em, the commissioner giving it again to Bryce and Bryce giving it again to the commissioner. That is Harp. He is been doing this since he was 15 years previous. It is simply one other day. I wasn’t stunned.”
When reached by ESPN, Harper declined remark. Manfred declined remark by a league spokesman.
Although he has not been outspoken on labor points in earlier years, the 32-year-old Harper, who’s represented by agent Scott Boras, personified the union’s perspective on the prospect of a capped system. On the All-Star Sport in Atlanta earlier this month, MLBPA government director Tony Clark known as wage caps “institutionalized collusion” and in a February interview with ESPN stated: “We at all times have been and proceed to be prepared to speak about methods to enhance the trade, and we do numerous issues with the league to do precisely that. You do not want a wage cap to develop the trade.”
The assembly with the Phillies — some earlier particulars of which had been reported by The Bandwagon — lined all kinds of matters, sources stated, however CBA negotiations, and the potential penalties of them, loomed massive. The specter of a possible work stoppage going into the 2027 season has hovered over the sport since 2022, when the events agreed to a five-year labor deal that ended a 99-day lockout by the homeowners.
“Rob appears to be in a fairly determined place on how necessary it’s to get this wage cap as a result of he is floating the phrase lockout two years upfront of our collective bargaining settlement (expiration),” Castellanos stated. “That is nothing to throw round. That is the identical factor as me saying in a wedding, ‘I believe divorce is a chance. It is in all probability going to occur.’ You do not simply say these issues.”
Although Manfred has not dedicated to pursuing a wage cap, a number of homeowners have criticized MLB’s present financial system and alluded to a cap as a panacea instantly (Baltimore’s David Rubenstein) and not directly (Boston’s John Henry, Pittsburgh’s Bob Nutting and the New York Yankees’ Hal Steinbrenner). Manfred’s regard of lockouts as a instrument in negotiations additional agitates gamers.
Manfred started holding common conferences with groups within the aftermath of the 2022 negotiations, having stated of their aftermath that “one of many issues I am speculated to do is promote a great relationship with our gamers. I’ve tried to do this. I’ve not been profitable in that.”
Regardless of the efforts, mistrust in Manfred amongst gamers stays — notably when discussing financial points. MLB’s need for a wage cap dates again a long time. The gamers’ strike in 1994 that canceled the World Collection was in direct response to the league’s efforts to maneuver to a capped system. A few of the identical speaking factors utilized by MLB within the Nineteen Nineties — notably in regards to the lack of profitability of groups amid an atmosphere that has seen immense progress in franchise worth and income — have re-emerged in recent times.
“Behind our heads we’re like, why are you speaking to us like proudly owning a baseball staff is like proudly owning a nail salon?” Castellanos stated. “That you just’re solely going to be a purposeful enterprise if you may make up the cash that you just put on this 12 months?”
Gamers on a number of groups advised ESPN they’ve used conferences with Manfred to press him on the shortage of payroll spending by sure groups. Going into this season, the hole between luxury-tax payrolls of the highest-spending staff (the Los Angeles Dodgers at greater than $400 million) and lowest spending (the Miami Marlins at slightly below $86 million) raised ire amongst followers and made wage caps a far larger a part of the rhetoric surrounding the sport than in earlier years.
Public dialogue has accomplished little to change the opinions of gamers on a cap. The advantage of assembly with Manfred, Castellanos stated, is to raised perceive the league’s perspective on a enterprise that made greater than $12 billion in income final 12 months. With the league aiming to nationalize native tv rights by 2028 and the expansion of playing and different ancillary companies, Castellanos believes training is important to making sure a well-informed participant inhabitants.
“We do not actually know that a lot about it,” Castellanos stated. “It isn’t like any person is educating us about this conglomerate of Main League Baseball that we, the gamers, make up, make doable. There is no gamers, there isn’t any Main League Baseball. I do not consider Rob Manfred is evil. I do not consider the homeowners are evil. I do not consider any of that.
“No person desires a piece stoppage in baseball,” he continued. “Not the gamers, not the league.”