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“No One Was Physically Assaulted,” as Phillies and Rob Manfred Reportedly Argued About the Salary Cap and Other Topics
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
According to Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer at The Bandwagon Substack, the Phillies and Rob Manfred had a meeting earlier this week that got “passionate, but not contentious” and it was mostly based around the salary cap:
The Phillies roster includes a lot of well-paid veteran players who are in a better position to push back than, say, a younger or more transient clubhouse might. Evidently, some of that happened in the hour-long meeting with the commissioner earlier this week.
(Nick) Castellanos, who said he was among the more vocal players in the meeting, gave The Bandwagon some insight into the vibe of the conversation:“Passionate,” but not “contentious”
But ultimately, Castellanos thought it was a productive dialogue. And “no one was physically assaulted.”
He resisted a characterization of the meeting as “contentious,” but said “these are passionate conversations” when the implication affects guys’ livelihoods.
He noted that Trea Turner in particular asked good questions.
At times, the conversation did get heated enough for players to express some version of “well, in that case, you can leave” to the commissioner.
The cap came up, of course
- Asked about whether Manfred explicitly brought up a salary cap, Castellanos said, wryly, that “he was very eloquently speaking around it.”
- Also: Manfred even floated some specific possible counter proposals.
- Castellanos said it’s only natural that players would “speak sternly” when the idea of a salary cap comes up.
Originally, when I saw the Phillies and Manfred were at each other’s throats I thought it would be because the Phillies called the All-Star Game a side-show when a couple of their teammates were left off the roster. Turns out this was the commissioner trying to get in front of labor negotiations before the CBA expires December 1st, 2026 and he wanted to talk to one of the most expensive rosters in the league.
Labor negotiations with millionaires is kind of a boring topic to have a take about, but I understand if you have the ability to make ungodly amounts of money for your hard work you would want to keep that going. On the other hand, if the salary cap is going to be the reason why there is a lockout, the players are going to have a tough time getting fans on their side. Baseball fans wondering if they have enough to buy eggs at the grocery store this week don’t really feel bad for the rich right now. A salary cap, you’d hope, would also level the playing the field and make the league more competitive. Of course, you’d still have terrible owners like the ones in Pittsburgh and Sacramento.
Trevor May on Foul Territory gave his take on everything:
So Manfred is trying to push a salary cap, but doesn’t have a good reason why MLB needs a salary cap. Not a great argument from a former labor lawyer who was selected to lead MLB’s side because he was a good labor lawyer. Castellanos also mentioned this during his interview with Keyser and Crizer (which sounds like central casting for an 80s buddy cop tandem):
- That eloquence — which, if I may editorialize, could also be considered slippery legalese — was something of a sticking point for Castellanos who expressed concern that the players are “really uninformed” compared to Rob Manfred, a literal labor lawyer.
- “I don’t know whose fault it is,” he said about that information gap.
- To some extent, it’s inherent to their respective job descriptions. This is probably at least part of why Manfred has deployed this approach of addressing players directly, without a union-side labor lawyer present.
Another thing MLB is doing is they’re paying former high-profile players to try and undermine today’s players into taking a salary cap, according to Evan Drellich at The Athletic (with ads):
The Major League Baseball Players Association believes commissioner Rob Manfred is trying to use the clout of highly respected, retired big leaguers to undermine the union and convince today’s players to accept a salary cap.
In 2023, Manfred formed a group called the Commissioner’s Ambassador Program, or CAP. Participants travel to significant league and community events, and also serve as liaisons to current and future players. MLB has quickly built up a robust roster of 19 players, highlighted by CC Sabathia, who will be inducted into the sport’s Hall of Fame on Sunday. Two other recent greats, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, are in CAP’s leadership as well.
Ain’t that some bullshit. Et tu, Howard and J-Roll? If I was an MLB player and some guy who made millions of uncapped money tried to tell me I shouldn’t want to, I’d tell him to fuck off, too.
Manfred is claiming the lack of trade deadline has made players lose out on $2 billion, also via Drellich at The Athletic (still with ads) because players haven’t agreed to a revenue sharing split with owners:
The first year, Manfred was positive about the game’s collective bargaining agreement. The next season, he said his tune changed a little. Then “this year, it’s really pretty pointed.”
He rails against the lack of a deadline in free agency. He tells players their salaries should be growing faster. In fact, he says, they could be $2 billion-plus richer had they decided to equally split the game’s revenues with owners some 20-plus years ago. He suggests, however, MLB Players Association leadership doesn’t want to deliver change.
You could argue some of these owners are too cheap to pay players in free agency. How many times have we seen good players wait longer in free agency then they should so owners can drive the prices down? Enough to think it’s still going to happen whether MLB and the MLBPA agree to a rev-share split. There’s a lot that needs overhauled in baseball. Salary cap might not even be in the top-5.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com