July 28, 2025
Phillies star Bryce Harper confronted MLB commissioner Rob Manfred over the prospect of a baseball-wide salary cap, according to a report from ESPN's Jeff Passan published Monday.
Manfred, in a visit to the Phillies' clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park last week for a meeting with the players, tried to broach the subject of a salary cap during the talk, though without ever saying the words outright, per Passan.
Harper, by the report, didn't want to hear any of it.
"If you want to speak about that, you can get the f--- out of our clubhouse," Harper told Manfred, via Passan's sources.
Manfred's meeting with the Phillies lasted more than an hour and was part of an initiative the commissioner carries out to visit all 30 teams in an effort to improve player relations.
Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos stepped in to defuse the situation, per Passan, to allow the meeting to continue.
But the reported disconnect on a potential salary cap only seems to be part of a much larger issue that is looming.
The collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association expires on Dec. 1, 2026. The thought of a salary cap looks like it will be one of the main sticking points in negotiations from the owners' side, but on the players' side, that stands to threaten contracts that only go up in value, especially for the stars, with every passing offseason.
The thought of a lockout is starting to pop up again as a result, and the idea of it was present throughout Passan's report.
"Rob seems to be in a pretty desperate place on how important it is to get this salary cap because he's floating the word 'lockout' two years in advance of our collective bargaining agreement [expiration]," Castellanos told Passan. "That's nothing to throw around. That's the same thing as me saying in a marriage, 'I think divorce is a possibility. It's probably going to happen.' You don't just say those things."
But among Harper, Castellanos, the Phillies, and now the rest of MLB's players, Manfred seems to have put it out there.
You can read Passan's full report on ESPN.com HERE.
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