World Series reportedly won't impact owners' demands ahead of MLB lockout

The Milwaukee Brewers jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, while the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays split the opening two games of the American League Championship Series. 

Of course, the fact that the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association is on track to expire on Dec. 1 remains a figurative black cloud hovering over the baseball community this fall. Some have wondered whether the results of the playoffs could impact discussions about MLB possibly embracing a "hard" salary cap and floor system, but ESPN's Jeff Passan revealed on Wednesday that little has changed regarding the expected lockout. 

Surveys show fans want cap-and-floor system for MLB

"If Milwaukee wins the NL pennant," Passan wrote, "the combined payrolls of the two World Series teams would be the lowest since the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers in 2011. Even so, owners do not intend to pivot from their contentions. Their insistence on a cap and floor -- backed, the league says, by surveys that show fans want one -- remains firm no matter who wins the Fall Classic, according to sources. Accordingly, collective bargaining talks have been at a standstill since the league in May proposed a 50-50 revenue split with a $245.3M ceiling and $171.2M floor. Not only is the union viscerally opposed to a cap, but it also contends players would lose hundreds of millions of dollars in such a system."

The Dodgers' activities this past winter reportedly left unnamed league owners "raging" over how much money the 2024 and 2025 World Series champions were able to spend on talent. However, the Spotrac website shows that the Brewers rank 19th in payroll for the season, while the Rays come in at 28th on the list. Last but not least in payroll is a Guardians side that is now three wins away from playing in the World Series. 

"All three clubs will spend less in salary than the Dodgers, with an estimated $183M luxury tax bill, will pay in penalties," Andy McCullough and Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic wrote about the Brewers, Rays and Guardians. 

Meanwhile, the New York Mets began the spring responsible for the league's highest payroll. They ended the regular season with a record of 74-88 and in last place in the NL East. 

MLBPA: Teams showed this year they can "reasonably compete" without a salary cap

Late this past summer, former star player and current analyst Alex Rodriguez warned that he had "spoken to dozens of people from both sides" about the salary-cap standoff and learned that "they’re both dug in like I’ve never seen before in 35 years of being around the game of baseball at the major leagues." 

Passan's story would lead one to believe the union could take some victory laps if the Brewers face either the Rays or the Guardians in this year's World Series. 

"What's undeniable is that right now, in the year that MLB staked its argument for a cap around the inability of teams with less than to reasonably compete, 75% of the teams left in the postseason -- and at least 50% of those in the World Series -- are more than reasonably competing. They harbor championship dreams, and they don't believe they're where they are by accident," Passan added. 

In short, baseball fans who weren't already fearing that 2027 games could be lost to a work stoppage may want to prepare themselves for what Passan referred to as "the mother of all self-inflicted wounds by those in charge of the game."