MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on adopting a salary cap: 'It's hard to ignore'

While the MLBPA has taken a firm stance this it won't accept a salary cap, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred believes it could be necessary to adopt one in order to achieve competitive balance.

In an appearance on The New York Post's "The Show" podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman Wednesday, Manfred addressed the spending gap problem the league faces.

"We do have the issue of competitive balance and revenue disparity. I don't think anybody on the club side has made up their mind that a salary cap is necessarily the answer," the commissioner said. "We have, over a long period of time, avoided making a salary cap proposal, but there is one truism, that it's hard to ignore.

"There are arguably ... five major professional sports in North America. Four of them have one system. One of them has a different system. I'm sort of a believer in the idea that the majority eventually gets it right ... and when you're the outlier, you have to ask yourself the question of: does somebody else have this system right?"

With a CBA being reached just last March, Manfred acknowledged that this is an issue for years down the road but did say that he and the league are making "the most aggressive effort" in communicating with the players since he began with MLB.

"We have a common interest with players," he said. "That common interest is really fundamental. You put the best game possible — and for me, that's always meant the most competitive game possible — on the field."

The salary cap conversation was sparked by a question about New York Mets owner Steve Cohen's spending this off-season.

Manfred addressed the positives of that spending, citing the energy it brings to a fanbase in a large market like New York, but also discussed how it affects other markets.

"The downside is, spending at that level, particularly at a level that kind of steps away from everybody else, emphasizes a problem ... that is that the disparity in the revenues that are generated in our markets produces a challenge in terms of competitive balance," Manfred said.

According to Cot's Contracts, the Mets are expected to have the highest 26-man Opening Day payroll at $328.3 million, $272.1 million more than the $56.2 million the Oakland Athletics are expected to have.

There are eight teams expected to have Opening Day payrolls coming in under $100 million, a far cry from the spending records being set in New York.

While all the attention is on Cohen and the Mets, Manfred insisted that the lower-spending teams are the focus of MLB.

"It is a mistake to assume that the clubs or Major League Baseball are not more concerned about what happens in Cincinnati or Pittsburgh than we are about Steve Cohen," he said. "Steve Cohen did what [he] did, we're more concerned about making sure that we have a system where Cincinnati, Oakland [and] Pittsburgh can compete reasonably."