TheJackBurton wrote: ↑25 Jan 2026 14:14 pm
Cardinals1964 wrote: ↑24 Jan 2026 15:49 pm
TheJackBurton wrote: ↑24 Jan 2026 12:52 pm
Cardinals1964 wrote: ↑23 Jan 2026 14:09 pm
TheJackBurton wrote: ↑23 Jan 2026 13:13 pm
Cardinals1964 wrote: ↑23 Jan 2026 13:08 pm
TheJackBurton wrote: ↑23 Jan 2026 09:17 am
3 other leagues have figured it out without a problem. There are only so many roster spots so players will have to sign elsewhere whether they want to or not.
3 other leagues with a cap and floor has punished middle journeyman talent.
Pay your top talent as much as you can. Pay your lesser talent as little as possible. No room for journeymen.
Why would I pay a utility guy $10 million to make the floor when I could pay a rookie $1 million? I’d save $9 million to go after higher level talent. This is a real problem in one of the other major sports.
No it hasn't, if anything it has kept them in the league longer because they are affordable and consistent. You know exactly what you are going to get with them.
Who has been squeezed out are vets who no longer produce at their previous levels and still want to be paid like they are.
I think you’re guessing at that.
Salary caps/floor Impact on Journeyman Talent:
Cost vs. Value: Teams often prefer cheaper rookie contracts or minimum-salary veterans over journeymen, who occupy valuable cap space without being franchise cornerstones.
Cap Management: Teams frequently restructure contracts of top stars, converting salary to bonuses, which creates "dead money" and necessitates shedding middle-tier, veteran contracts to stay under the cap.
Rookie Wage Scale: The rookie wage scale has changed the economics, favoring young, cost-controlled talent over experienced, mid-tier veterans.
Floor Constraints: While the 90% floor requires minimum spending, teams often prefer to spend that required money on top-tier talent rather than spreading it across multiple veteran journeymen.
Thats the reality.
No I'm not guessing. Mid-tier guys tend to have a longer shelf life because they can be signed easily, don't request much in the form of salary, and generally play close to their contract value. When the buyout season in the NHL comes, it's never the 3rd or 4th line guys who guys get cut, it's the superstars whose contracts have far exceeded their value on the ice. A lower end contract is always easier to trade and should they get waived they end up getting re-signed as the contract demands again are minimal.
They sign very quickly in UFA as they know there only a finite amount of money and contracts available. Superstars can wait months before signing if they want, as MLB has proven over the past decade.
It's the 12-15 year veteran who gets squeezed out now because it's a young mans game and they can no longer keep up and no longer are valued contract wise.
A "just spend as much or as little as you want" league is no longer viable in the sports world and MLB is absolutely proving it.
I disagree. 100%.
Of course you do, based on everything you've said it doesn't surprise me in the least. At this point I'd imagine you are Tony Clark.
The NFL started their salary cap decades ago, they have a cap and a floor and they are easily at the top of the food chain for sports entertainment and have a single event that gets more eyeballs on it then the majority of MLB games combined for an entire season. They have 4 of the top 10 and 11 of the top 20 earnings athletes in 2025. Guess it works for them.
The NBA has a salary cap and a floor, and they even have exceptions to maximize paying a player and have 6 of the top 20 paid athletes in 2025. Huh, doesn't seem to be hurting the players at all.
The NHL has seen their revenue and overall league health increase 10x since they instituted a salary cap and floor and are now the longest running league without any lock outs or strikes. Huh guess it works for them.
Funny how those 3 leagues have a salary cap and floor and yet 2 of them have 17 of the top 20 paid athletes in 2025. MLB has exactly 2. Ohtanei and Snell.
One of the largest differences between those 3 leagues and MLB currently is, if Paul Skenes played hockey and was as good at it as he is at pitching, the Penguins would have a 90% chance of keeping him his entire career as the other 31 teams are capped at what they can offer or destroy their team overpaying him.
The Pirates? No chance, unless he is willing to take less and stay there, but there's no way his agent allows it. None.
I'll let you discuss it amongst yourself.
You are correct. Top-tier players don’t get hurt. That’s what I said. This is what I base my opinion on. What brings you to your conclusion? I remember when salary caps were introduced and I remember journeymen players finding it hard to get a job. In some leagues, the minimum salary increases with years of service. So instead of having a four-year player making a higher minimum league salary it’s better to have a one year player making a lower amount of money. I can’t believe you don’t remember this when it first happened.
How Salary Caps Hurt Journeyman Players:
Salary Squeeze: When a large portion of the salary cap is allocated to a few superstar players, teams have less money to distribute among the rest of the roster. This forces them to fill out the team with lower-paid, younger, or minimum-salary players, often at the expense of established veteran journeymen.
"Cap Casualties": To stay under the cap, teams frequently release veteran players with higher salaries once their performance begins to decline, even if they are still solid contributors.
Reduced Leverage: Salary caps act as a ceiling, limiting the bargaining power of non-star players who might otherwise receive higher offers in an unrestricted market.
Talent Concentration vs. Rotation: While intended to spread talent, caps can sometimes encourage teams to maximize efficiency by dumping reliable mid-level talent to keep top-tier players, reducing the overall demand for experienced, dependable, but non-star, professionals.
The "Superstar" Effect:
In leagues with hard caps (like the NFL or NHL), teams often pay a premium for elite talent, leaving little room for error or high-cost role players. As a result, the middle class of players often faces stagnant wages or job insecurity, as teams opt for cheaper alternatives to maximize their cap space.
Alternative Viewpoint:
Some arguments suggest that salary caps, when combined with a strong salary floor (minimum spend), can actually raise the minimum salary for the lowest-paid players, effectively strengthening the income of the bottom tier. However, the "middle-class" journeyman player often faces the most significant squeeze.
