MLB Owners Ready To 'Burn The House Down' And Cancel 2027 Season To Make Themselves Richer

Major League Baseball has, for the first time in decades, experienced a rapid period of growth associated with new rules to speed up the pace-of-play. Thanks to the pitch clock, limits to mound visits, and banning the shift, games are and feel faster than they did in years past. As a result, attendance is up, ratings are up, and international interest is up. 

But all that momentum might be squandered at the end of the 2026 season, when the collective bargaining agreement between ownership and the MLB Players Association expires. And according to a new report, there's a real, significant chance that the owners sacrifice the entire 2027 season in order to get what they want: a salary cap. 

RELATED: New Report: MLB Owners Willing To Cancel Games Next Year

Labor negotiations between the two sides are never pleasant, but with the Los Angeles Dodgers a convenient boogeyman, there are new indications that owners might be willing to dig their heels in. Why? Because like many fans, they want a salary cap. But unlike those fans, owners apparently realize that a salary cap would make them richer. 

Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker is introduced to the media during a press conference at Dodger Stadium. (Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images)

Owners Realize Salary Cap Helps Them Make More Money

Discussion of a salary cap started after the Dodgers won the 2024 World Series, with fans seemingly forgetting that they'd called Los Angeles "chokers" for nearly a decade, mocking their win in the 2020 World Series as a "Mickey Mouse" ring. But those calls got louder after the 2025 season, when the Dodgers spent more money after winning a second consecutive title. 

Two seasons of results, two seasons of free agency spending, were enough to remove the 2023 postseason from fans' memories. The Arizona Diamondbacks swept the high-priced Dodgers in the NLDS on their way to playing in the World Series. The New York Mets, despite spending the most money in baseball over the last half-decade, have just two postseason appearances since 2016 and haven't advanced past the NLCS. 

But the Dodgers' signing of outfielder Kyle Tucker was the straw that broke the camel's back. Tucker got four years and $240 million, with some deferrals and a signing bonus, a massive deal that only the Mets were willing to match. Fans went ballistic, and owners saw their opportunity. Opposing fans would support a lockout and salary cap, the thinking went, to stop the Dodgers. 

Competitive balance in baseball is the best of any sport, by a wide margin, making calls for a salary cap less justifiable. That is, if competitive balance actually mattered to ownership. But as ESPN's Jeff Passan writes, the real reason owners are ready to lose an entire season is because a cap would increase the value of their organizations.

"Owners are angry, too," Passan wrote. "Their franchise valuations aren't growing as quickly as their billionaire peers' in other sports, and they blame the system that governs Major League Baseball. They don't like it. Nearly every owner believes MLB needs a salary cap. Its presence, owners say, immediately would juice franchise values, with the labor cost essentially fixed and no more chasing Dodgers teams spending $500 million annually on players."

There it is. That's the reason they want a salary cap. While some owners say it would fix competitive balance, those who've spent more than a few seconds following baseball realize that the team with the most wins in the regular season last year was the small-market, extremely frugal Milwaukee Brewers. Or that the Toronto Blue Jays went from winning 74 games in 2024 to being within two outs of winning the World Series. Mostly on the backs of cheap players like Ernie Clement and Addison Barger. Clement, who made all of $1.95 million in 2025, set a postseason record for most hits in a single playoffs, with a .411 batting average in October. Barger, who played for the league minimum, hit .480/.536/.680 in the World Series. Alejandro Kirk, who made under $5 million last year, hit .308/.441/.538 in the seven games. 

Mookie Betts, who made over $30 million, hit .138/.286/.138. Welcome to the randomness of postseason baseball. 

In response to this, though, owners are taking advantage of ill-informed fans. "They think a salary cap will fix everything, even if it means jeopardizing the 2027 season," Passan explains. "‘They are ready to burn the f---ing house down,’ one high-ranking team official said."

Perfection. Owners think that guaranteeing themselves lower outlays on salary will make them richer by raising the value of their franchises. They're willing to miss an entire season in order to raise those values, while doing nothing to address competitive balance. All because fans are angry about a system they don't understand and often misinterpret.

Under the Dodgers "dynasty," ratings are up, interest is up, attendance is up, and the sport is reporting record revenues. That's the stupidity of what we're facing, jeopardizing all that momentum because billionaire owners are angry that NFL owners have more money than them. Which is all because of gambling anyway. Incredible stuff.