JUPITER, Fla. — The sluggish free-agent marketplace and the lack of spending in some unexpected corners of the standings, such as the Cardinals spending zero so far on major league additions to the 2025 club, has the attention of the players union as the calendar turns closer to another round of bargaining negotiations and a potential work stoppage.
“Rest assured, because we track all 30 teams all the time, when a team that has historically functioned a certain way suddenly finds them functioning different, yeah,†union chief Tony Clark said Wednesday when asked by the Post-Dispatch if the Cardinals’ lack of spending caused any alarm.
“We pay attention to it. We pay attention to it.â€
Clark and fellow officials with the Major League Baseball Players Association, including former Cardinals pitcher Andrew Miller, visited the Cardinals clubhouse Wednesday on an annual tour of spring camps.
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The Cardinals are the only club of the 30 yet to sign a player this offseason to a major league contract, and they have cut payroll significantly after two decades of steadily raising it, if not dramatically from year to year. The Cardinals point to a reduction of their broadcast rights fees as a reason, and they expect a drop in ticket sales, though opening day March 27 at Busch Stadium is trending toward a sellout, per the team. Two revenue streams that allowed the Cardinals to spend beyond their market size — “punch above their weight,†as an executive put it — are squeezed for 2025.
The union, Clark said, appreciates market size as a constant (even growing) factor in spending and is eager to revisit proposals the MLBPA made in 2022 to reward teams like the Cardinals for success in the standings and spending in the marketplace.
“We recognize there are cities that are less populated than some other cities,†Clark said. “Having a system that reflects that and then rewards the team that may be in a small market or mid-market for having success makes sense to us. Rewarding them for doing well, rewarding them for continuing to invest in their club, rewarding in a way whether it’s financial and/or otherwise to help continue to grow in the market they’re in — those are things we’re very interested in and we proposed. There wasn’t as much interest on the other side.â€
The Cardinals are one of the final four teams for Clark and his crew to visit, and the meeting went almost twice as long as the scheduled hour.
Topics of discussion at various clubhouses have included pitching injuries and informal feedback on the spring use of the Automated Ball Strike system. Clark said he usually can tell where the union and Major League Baseball is in its bargaining “cycle†based on the conversations.
The current CBA, partially negotiated during a stretch of residency at the Cardinals complex in Jupiter, expires after the 2026 postseason, and both sides appear to be bracing for a chilly beginning.
The last CBA came at the end of a 99-day lockout. And this past winter’s free agency — with select teams splurging and more teams trimming — sets the stage.
“Disappointing when the industry is growing and yet less and less teams appear to be interested in being the last team standing,†Clark said. “That is a concern. And so we saw teams function a certain way early on. We see some teams functioning a certain way early on (in CBA). We see teams functioning differently now. Is that a trend? Or is that a blip? That remains, perhaps, a bit to be seen. But the idea of being in an industry that is growing and teams having the wherewithal to continue to improve their club deciding not to is a concern.â€
Where Cards stand
The Cardinals surpassed $200 million in spending on their 40-player payroll for the first time in 2024. That offseason, a second consecutive starting earlier than hoped with the team out of the postseason, began with a news conference announcing a new direction, a pivot toward youth and reduced payroll.
The Cardinals were braced for a significant hit to their broadcast rights with partner Diamond Sports Group in bankruptcy court. They lopped off $30 million alone by declining options on players, and they trimmed more than $50 million total if you include the departure of Paul Goldschmidt.
The Cardinals renegotiated their TV rights deal at a 23% trim and are still unsure what the hit will be in ticket sales. Their cut to their big league payroll was larger than that percentage, and they attempted to drop more by trading Nolan Arenado. The Cardinals have increased spending on player development with an expanded staff and facilities.
In the current CBA, the Cardinals have the fifth-lowest market score of the 30 teams, and that number is used for revenue sharing and competitive balance draft picks.
Because revenue sharing is also based on all teams paying the same percentage of their local revenue and then splitting the total pool, the Cardinals spending less in 2025 changes their return.
Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III said the team’s approach this year to is to build a more efficient contender as free-agent costs rise. Asked if the league needed a salary cap for markets like his to compete, DeWitt said the Cardinals have been “able to without one.â€
“We’re going to compete whether there is a new framework, the same framework, whatever it is,†DeWitt told the Post-Dispatch in January. “All the things that we’re doing now, no matter what the system is, there is going to be a premium on drafting and developing.â€
The union proposed in 2022 a way they thought would boost a market’s ability to do that.
Among the ideas tabled by the MLBPA during the previous CBA negotiations was tying draft position to market score instead of entirely to standings. A team with a smaller market score would draft higher than a larger-market team with the same record, a source with knowledge of the proposal described. There was also a proposal for an additional draft pick — for a team receiving revenue sharing that made the postseason and for a team receiving revenue sharing that finished above .500, even if it did not make the postseason. Under that structure, based entirely on market score, the Cardinals would have received a bonus pick for a winning record in 2024.
“We’ve tried to introduce things that we think would beneficial,†Clark said.
Rewarding mid-market teams with draft picks could increase prospects and prospects to trade for those clubs but not address the disparity of spending top-end talents.
Cardinals broadcast Chip Caray asked Clark on Wednesday if realignment by market size or economics would benefit the game. He offered Tampa Bay’s presence in Yankees’ division as an example. (The National League Central has four of the five smallest markets.)
Clark countered with another topic on the CBA horizon: expansion.
“In a world where you have 32 teams vs. 30 teams then there is an opportunity to reimagine a lot of things,†Clark said. “We’ll see what it looks like. ... We think there is an opportunity, and we hope there is another opportunity to engage on how best to support teams that don’t find themselves in some of the larger markets.â€
