MLB Trade Deadlines & Salary Caps: Key Factors Moving Forward

A lot of what we keep talking about with Major League Baseball and trade deadlines and who's going to get the money and who's not, a lot of this all depends on how the CBA negotiations even roll. In your heart of hearts, I likely don't think anything is getting done until February, March, somewhere along the lines, but it's safe to say that it's all going to come down to, and I hate to make it this easy, but sometimes it is. There's no need to make it more difficult. It's all going to be about a salary cap. Is it not? I mean, is that where the line is going to be drawn in the sand? A hundred percent, Joe. You've been around a long time. You know how this is headed. At a floor, by the way, salary floor, so yeah, I think that's where we are. I've said on this network and I've said for many years that I've always been a player's guy and I've always backed everything that they've had to say, and I've always thought that in the entertainment and where they put their bodies on the field and everyone wants to see them. No one's interested in who owns a team. They want to see the players play, but this is the first time that I have switched. I have switched and quite frankly, I understand that a lot of different teams win the playoffs and a lot of different teams potentially can win the World Series, but I just think the haves and the have nots, the disparity now, Joe, is just, it's much bigger than it ever has been. And however they end up fixing it, I think it needs to be fixed. And I do think that a cap and a floor would help that, Joe, if the minimum that you had to spend was a hundred or $150 million, you're talking about 10 teams that are going to have to increase the payroll, Joe, by about 60, $70 million next season. That's a lot. And all you're doing is taking down a few teams from spending what they normally would. I think it would give an opportunity for a lot of teams to not just make the playoffs, but to win. And for, unfortunately, I don't agree with the player sentiment that they say that it doesn't work in the other sports. I mean, what are you talking about? I mean, the Green Bay Packers have won Super Bowls. The Oklahoma City Thunder is winning NBA championships. So for me, I'm in on that. And again, I'm a little jaded. I'm in a market where the spending isn't going to be what it is on some of the other teams, at least currently, because of the revenue that's made here locally. But I am for it, and I hope that it ends up happening. But I understand the player side. They don't want to be capped. They've never had one. Why should they have to have one? What I hope happens here, Joe, is that cooler heads prevail, and the majority of Major League Baseball's players are not making Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani type money. And the lower guys are going to be making a lot more money with this new deal, a lot more money. The lower guys get helped out a lot. So imagine a scenario, Joe, where there's a cap and a floor, and baseball's free agency hits, and in the first 48 hours, everyone's signing. And here are the Pirates signing major guys, and Tampa Bay signing major guys, and Miami and all of these teams clamoring to sign. Like the Jaguars, you know? You know how free agency starts, and Jacksonville's in, and they sign some guy that we've never heard of, probably, for like $70 million. But in that league, you've got to do it. I think the same thing, hopefully, will come to Major League Baseball. But you said it best. That's really what it's about. As far as when they'll play, obviously, I have a lot of vested interest in this, including a job. So I am going to hope that the season just starts on time, Joe. I will take that. That would be good enough for me.