MLB proposes hard salary cap and contract limits

Major League Baseball proposed a series of significant economic changes on Thursday, including a hard salary cap and limits on contract length, setting the stage for a contentious negotiation with the players' union as the sides work toward a new collective bargaining agreement. The league's latest proposal, its third in recent weeks, is conditioned entirely on the MLB Players Association accepting a salary cap and floor system, a concept the union has historically and emphatically rejected.

The league's plan includes a salary floor of $171.2 million and a ceiling of $245.3 million per team, beginning in 2027. As part of the package, MLB proposed capping free agent contracts for players joining new teams at five years, with a maximum value tied to the cap. Based on last year's revenue, that maximum would be $202 million. Teams could re-sign their own players to a maximum of six years, valued at $265 million under the same formula, under a proposed "Cornerstone Player" provision modeled after the NBA's "Bird Rights."

In what it called concessions, the league stated it would accept the union's earlier proposals to grant free agency to players who are 30 years old with five years...