The commissioner who called off the World Series as striking players fought off a salary cap still sees merit to a salary cap in Major League Baseball.
“Three of the other major sports all have salary caps, and they’re working,” former commissioner Bud Selig said on the MVP Podcast. “And they’re working well.”
Former Angels first baseman Mo Vaughn, the 1995 American League most valuable player for the Boston Red Sox, is the host of the MVP Podcast.
Selig’s tenure as commissioner ran from 1992 to 2015. The players went on strike in 1994 when owners insisted on a salary cap. Selig had to call off the World Series, and the players returned in 1995 without a salary cap.
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2026 season, and several owners already have called for a salary cap, claiming competitive balance cannot truly be possible when teams like the Dodgers and New York Mets spend five times on payroll as teams such as the Athletics and Miami Marlins.
The players’ union adamantly opposes a cap, arguing owners are more concerned about restricting spending and about how the sale prices of teams are not appreciating as greatly as those in other sports.
Selig did not directly advocate for a salary cap as much as he did for dialogue between owners and players. Rob Manfred, the current commissioner, has called an offseason lockout a negotiating tool that does not harm the sport so long as regular-season games are not lost.
“The last 22 years of my commissionership, we had no lockout, no strike, no nothing,” Selig said. “And that really helped us.
“I think, when you look back, some of the labor problems that we had really hurt us. So we have to be careful.”
Vaughn’s current business ventures include serving as an advisor at Perfect Game, which distributes the podcast. As he talked over old times with Selig, the former commissioner realized everything old is new again.
“We had a strike that cost the World Series,” Selig said, “and it was over things that they’re still fighting about.”
