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Rob Manfred’s Goons Allegedly Threatened Bryce Harper Over Salary Cap Fight
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
This is wild story from hockey agent Allan Walsh on the Agent Provocateur show about one of Rob Manfred’s goons allegedly threatening Bryce Harper after Harper told the commissioner to “get the fuck out of the clubhouse” if he wants to talk salary cap:
So Manfred and his goons are going to use mob style tactics (allegedly) to get this CBA across the finish line, eh? What a plan. Piss off every single player in the league as you go on your salary cap tour then threaten them like you’re the cartel, hoping they cave. That’s quite the bargaining chip. If this is the plan, enjoy the 2026 MLB season because we might not see a full season of baseball until 2028. Time for Dave Dombrowski to go all in!
It seems like Manfred is hell bent on bringing a salary cap to baseball and I get it. Manfred works for the owners. The small market teams that don’t spend want a cap, so they know the floor and keep the status quo. Sure, they’re masquerading it as a chance to compete with the Dodgers and Mets, but if you think cheap owners with the Pirates and Athletics are going to start competing with the big boys I’ve got beachfront property in Iowa I’d like to sell you. And lets not be dense. The cap is just as much for large market teams. You think the Dodgers and Mets want to shell out $700 million contracts? Absolutely not. Billionaires are the cheapest people in the world. That’s why they stay billionaires. They’d much rather be “handicapped” by a salary cap so they can control their expenses, better predict profits, and inflate their franchise valuations. It’s that simple. They’ll talk about parity and competitive balance and those same owners will continue to not spend on the big-name free agent until the next CBA. Of course the fans are the ones that always get screwed.
The Dodgers winning back-to-back World Series can’t help the players. Fans are getting sick of LA out-spending everyone and gobbling up every big name free agent in MLB and Japan. The owners will definitely have some fan support because of this, which makes this Manfred’s best chance to implement a cap. It’ll be interesting. Bryce Harper better fall in line or he’ll end up with the Phillie Phanatic’s bloody head in his bed.
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