Baseball Insider 'Terrified' Players Could Strike For 'A Year or Two' in 2027

MLB insider Andy Martino has suggested today that major league players are prepared to sit out for a very, very long time when push comes to shove over the issue of a salary cap in labor negotiations for a new CBA ahead of 2027.

When asked if a potential work stoppage will prevent big spending from teams, @martinonyc suggests players could sit out a long time 😬 pic.twitter.com/tJxndDYYAX
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) October 15, 2025

"I think that if the owners try to do (either a salary cap or a salary floor), the players would walk for a year or two. I'm terrified that that's gonna happen," said Martino on WFAN. "The entire players' association's existence is based on resisting the (salary) cap, (all the way back to) the 1960s... And the owners are like, 'No, we gotta do something about this. This is our time.'"

Baseball remains the only major professional team sport in North America without a salary cap, and it is the main factor in the continued 'haves' and 'have-nots' dichotomy that exists in MLB. The LA Dodgers and New York Mets spend hand over fist above the rest of the teams (with the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies not too far back), while a large portion of the majors have to get by on far less.

This season, we have seen the Milwaukee Brewers buck the trend, as a team that is more cash-strapped that was able to be among the best in the game. But even then, as we're seeing in the NLCS this week, when they come up against the big, bad Dodgers money machine, they aren't a match. At least not yet.

Martino says, given the state of the owners and the MLBPA ready to dig in their heels on this issue, "I'm really scared that I'm gonna be, I don't know what, digging ditches in 2027. Because the thing I get paid to talk about feels a little dicey right now."

For all you true, blue baseball fans, maybe the spring & summer of 2027 is the time to finally take up Pickleball, as your sports calendar might be empty for a long time.