I know that baseball gave us a lot to talk about this week. My Phightins lost a series against the Reds, split a series against the godawful Nationals, swept an excellent Mariners team, and lost to a Mets team running on the power of Elmo. But I wanted to focus this Weekly Wrap-up on events outside of the diamond, more specifically, the potential strike that will wrack MLB in 2027. Why 2027?: That is the year the players’ CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) expires. To look at how we got there, I want to talk about the issues players and owners want from a new CBA as well as what it will mean for baseball fans.
Talking Union: What the Players Want
The most talked about grievance players and owners have is a salary cap versus a salary floor. As eagle-eyed readers of The Weekly Wrapup have surmised, the number of generationally bad teams has increased due to cheap ownership groups. For example, the reason the 2025 Rockies have become last year’s 2024 White Sox stems from ownership that not only loves to penny pinch, but also has few guardrails to stop said proprietors from lapsing into parsimonious practices. Also, two teams literally do not have a permanent stadium, and while the Rays’ rootlessness stems from a natural disaster, both the Rays and the Oakland Athletics have some ultracheap owners. With all the examples I’ve listed above, there’s no wonder the players’ union head has stated that there needs to be a floor alongside the salary cap that the owners have demanded (Ian Casselberry, Yahoo Sports, March 2025).
Bosses Push Back
Rob Manfred does answer to the GMs, but they don’t play on the field. Because of this, he has to at least look like he’s listening to the players. But he has held firm to the idea that MLB needs a salary cap, no floor needed. He thinks that union head Tony Clark is out of touch with what the players want (Evan Drelich, June 2025). So why not negotiate with players one-on-one and cut out that pesky middleman in the MLBPA union head? I mean, it’s bold to deal with players without someone who is paid to do that; while Manfred does state in Drellich’s article that he worked on CBA negotiations in 2002, the current year is not 2002.1 Step one of negotiating without the union: meet with the clubhouses. While Manfred meeting with the players is nothing new, as he’s conducted virtual meetings since the near lockout in 2022, meeting with them in person marks his urgency to get the players on board with his view of only having a cap.
He even established an organization of retired players in 2023, fittingly called CAP (Commissioners’ Ambassador Program), given Manfred’s exhortation of the cap as the ultimate solution to baseball’s ills. While Manfred has instructed CAP members, including Philly legends Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard, to “‘stay away from the conversations about labor’”, CAP members have appeared with him (Evan Drellich, The Athletic, July 2025) on his MLB clubhouse tour. CAP’s potential de facto role in the CBA negotiations is something to look out for as the potential lockout approaches.
Rob Manfred’s clubhouse meeting with the Philadelphia Phillies made headlines due to rumors of Harper telling Manfred to get out of the clubhouse. The Bandwagon, a newsletter that covers the Phillies interviewed outfielder Nick Castellanos regarding that meeting. He said that many players did speak passionately in the meeting as “‘it is their livelihood’” (Hannah Heyser and Zach Crizer, The Bandwagon, July 2025). Castellanos concluded that players should get more informed about labor law, as Manfred has a labor law degree, whereas many MLB players have either some college education or only completed high school. Nowhere in the interview did I see Castellanos confirming the Harper rumors, so while I would love for it to be true, I’m taking that with a grain of salt.
After the Phillies meeting, Rob Manfred went on ESPN’s baseball broadcast of the Little League Classic and talked about realignment. THAT IS NOT EVEN THE PROBLEM, ROB! THE PROBLEM IS THE SALARY CAP AND FLOOR PLUS RSN DEALS EXPIRING (A MAJOR SOURCE OF TEAM REVENUE) AND CHEAP OWNERSHIP RUINING TEAMS. IT’S NOT THE DIVISIONS, IN FACT I’D SAY IT’S THE LEAST OF MLB’S PROBLEMS. Now, guess what the discourse has turned to instead of the upcoming strike? That’s right, divisional realignment. With this move, Rob Manfred turned into the meme of a boss throwing a pizza party instead of improving their workplace. I hope he gets booed in every stadium he goes to.
Like this one.
What it Means For Us
I’m in favor of unions; it is the only proven way for the working class to make their demands heard and inch closer to the goal of work (in particular one’s value) not equaling someone’s inherent value. Or better yet, not having to work to get food, healthcare, housing, and all the other important things we need to survive. We have more in common with the striking players than we do with the bosses; like us, the players get a minuscule piece of the gargantuan profits that the owners make. Or to quote from the IWW charter: The working class and the owning class have nothing in common(Constitution, IWW.org). I don’t care if players want an extra million; they’re the ones who risk their lives to win. They risk bodily harm (and for pitchers, the specter of Tommy John) and deserve however much can make them and their families comfortable. Do the owners do that? Does Rob Manfred do that? No. I mean, Manfred could count appearing in front of fans who boo him as psychological harm, but that’s his problem, not mine.
Prepare yourself for a bitter fight. But also know that the real enemy does not lie in the players, but in the owners who only care about profits. Solidarity to the workers forever.
1 Manfred also employs a classic strategy by the boss when faced with discontent from unions, which is to divide workers from union representation to make them more amenable to his demands.
2 It is also not lost on me the history of union organization in Philadelphia. For those interested in diving in on why unions are a Philly thing, I’d recommend starting by listening to the Labor Jawn podcast and reading this article about the IWW Local 8. The Philadelphia branch of the IWW also commissioned a plaque and mural honoring Black Local 8 organizer Ben Fletcher near the Philadelphia waterfront.
3 Tenant unions exist; one local to me is the Philadelphia Tenants Union. There is also a national tenant union organization called the Tenant Union Federation that you can look into as well.