An altercation between MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Phillies star Bryce Harper made headlines in July, with the two-time MVP reportedly standing “nostril to nostril” with the commissioner and telling him he may “get the [expletive] out of our clubhouse” if he was going to speak about implementing a wage cap (per ESPN’s Jeff Passan). Manfred was holding his annual assembly with the Phillies’ gamers at Residents Financial institution Park.
Experiences from Passan and the New York Submit’s Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman differ on when the confrontation occurred. Passan writes that Harper sat quietly for many of the assembly, which lasted over an hour, earlier than tensions boiled over and he approached the commissioner. In distinction, Heyman and Sherman write that his feedback got here “about 5 minutes into” Manfred’s opening remarks. No matter sure discrepancies, what’s clear is that, whereas Manfred by no means instantly talked about a wage cap, Harper believed it was implied. He felt strongly sufficient to say that gamers “should not scared to lose 162 video games” of their combat towards a cap (per Passan). He additionally questioned what Manfred has ever achieved “to learn the gamers” (per Heyman and Sherman). Regardless of Harper’s feedback, Manfred stayed to complete the assembly, doubling down on the significance of speaking about, in Passan’s phrases, “threats to MLB’s enterprise and methods to develop the sport.”
Afterwards, Harper’s teammate Nick Castellanos described the ordeal to ESPN as intense and passionate, and he appeared to verify it went each methods. “The commissioner [was] giving it again to Bryce and Bryce [was] giving it again to the commissioner,” he defined.
Afterwards, Manfred declined to remark to ESPN or the New York Submit, whereas Harper later informed reporters (together with Bob Cooney of NBC Sports activities Philadelphia): “You guys noticed what was within the article. However I gained’t be moving into the main points of what occurred or how I felt or the rest like that…I’m simply making an attempt to fret about baseball…All people noticed the phrases and every little thing that occurred. I don’t wish to say something greater than that.”
Harper continued: “I’ve talked labor and I’ve achieved it in a method that I don’t assume I want to speak to the media about it…I’ve at all times been very vocal, simply not in a method that individuals can see.”
Yesterday, nevertheless, Manfred spoke at Wrigley Area to announce that the Cubs would host the 2027 All-Star Sport, and he lastly addressed his dispute with Harper, claiming: “It was a person selecting a selected solution to categorical himself, and I don’t assume it is advisable to make extra out of that than that” (per Patrick Mooney of The Athletic).
Maybe that’s true. But, there is no such thing as a denying it will be in Manfred’s greatest pursuits to downplay his altercation with some of the influential gamers within the league. It’s additionally in his greatest pursuits to imagine this was an remoted incident of an “particular person” expressing himself moderately than a mirrored image of what number of gamers really feel throughout all 30 groups.
With the present collective bargaining settlement between MLB and the MLBPA set to run out on December 1, 2026, it’s no secret that a number of homeowners are all for instituting a wage cap. Certainly, in line with ESPN’s Jorge Castillo, the MLBPA believes Manfred is pushing for a cap in his clubhouse conferences this 12 months – even when he isn’t utilizing these actual phrases. Unsurprisingly, the gamers affiliation is strongly towards a cap, arguing it will primarily serve to artificially suppress participant salaries moderately than enhance parity across the league or assist to develop the sport.
Chatting with reporters forward of the All-Star Sport final month, MLBPA govt director Tony Clark described a wage cap as “institutionalized collusion” (per Castillo). “A cap isn’t about rising the sport,” he mentioned. “A cap is about franchise values and income. That’s what a cap is about.”
What’s extra, whereas Manfred may not be prepared to say “wage cap,” he has already talked about the potential for a lockout. Again in March, Clark mentioned that he’s anticipating a piece stoppage after the 2026 season, and lots of across the league are involved about the potential for contentious CBA negotiations consuming into the 2027 marketing campaign. It’s not exhausting to guess what the sticking level in these negotiations may be.
Castellanos informed Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer of The Bandwagon (who first reported on the “heated” assembly between Manfred and the Phillies) that the commissioner was “very eloquently talking round” the thought of a wage cap. He later mentioned to ESPN: “Rob appears to be in a fairly determined place on how necessary it’s to get this wage cap as a result of he’s floating the phrase ’lockout’ two years prematurely of our collective bargaining settlement [expiring].”
Manfred started holding annual conferences with every staff’s gamers three years in the past, following the lockout that lasted a lot of the 2021-22 offseason and delayed the beginning of the 2022 marketing campaign. One cause for these conferences? He desires to speak on to the gamers moderately than have his messages undergo the MLBPA. Throughout a current investor occasion held by the Braves, he mentioned: “The technique is to get on to the gamers. I don’t assume the management of this union is anxious to cleared the path to alter. So we have to energize the workforce to be able to get them conversant in or supportive of the concept that perhaps change within the system could possibly be good for everyone” (per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich).
One solution to learn these feedback? Manfred is aware of the MLBPA is staunchly against a wage cap. It definitely appears as if he’s hoping to pit the union’s membership towards the union’s management, in an effort the push by means of modifications that might, in Clark’s phrases: “add to the homeowners’ income and franchise values, whereas prohibiting golf equipment from totally competing to place one of the best product on the sector for the followers and limiting participant compensation, ensures and adaptability” (per Drellich).
If Harper’s response is any indication, Manfred may not be having as a lot success connecting with gamers as he hoped, whilst he has, at occasions, been accompanied at his clubhouse conferences by revered former gamers within the Commissioner’s Ambassador Program (CAP). However a minimum of for now, the commissioner insists it’s not that severe: “I believe extra has been made out of this than must be made out of it. Bryce expressed his views. On the finish of the assembly, we shook palms and went our separate methods. Not all that vital” (per Andrew Seligman of the Related Press).
Photograph in article courtesy of Invoice Streicher, Imagn Photos.
