MLB proposed a hard salary cap to the MLB Players’ Association in New York on Thursday, May 28. It was the first by the league owners since 1994.
The proposed $245.3 million salary cap, which would include benefits, is lower than nine current MLB clubs’ payroll and would require a total reduction in payroll of $578 million.
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Among those nine teams is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have a payroll of $420,146,940 for the 2026 season, according to Spotrac. That’s the highest in the league, and they’re followed by the New York Mets ($381.85 million) and New York Yankees ($336.56 million).
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Los Angeles will pay just over $169.1 million in luxury tax (competitive balance tax) for the 2026 season. The team paid a record-breaking $169.4 million in taxes for 2025 after constructing the most expensive roster in sports history.
MLB insists the newly proposed salary cap would increase competitive balance in the sport.
How would a hard cap impact the Dodgers?
The Dodgers have used the current salary structure to their advantage, acquiring star players such as Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Tucker in recent years and producing back-to-back World Series championships.
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Current contracts would be grandfathered in, but any future contracts would be structured around the new salary cap.
If the hard cap is implemented, the defending champions would have to (currently) cut $174.84 million to meet the $245.3 million salary cap.
While there are several things that would need to happen before the Dodgers actually have to make any decisions, it may, at the very least, place a sense of urgency on the franchise to make the most of the current success window.
Ohtani has a heavily deferred 10-year, $700 million deal that he signed in 2023. Outfielder Kyle Tucker signed a four-year deal in January worth $240 million.
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Shortstop Mookie Betts (2032), pitcher Blake Snell (2030) and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2029) are among the other players at the top of the payroll with long-term deals. First baseman Freddie Freeman‘s six-year, $162 million contract expires in 2027.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Dodgers would be impacted by MLB’s proposed salary cap
