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Baltimore's spending has improved gradually over the past few seasons.
The Baltimore Orioles have never had a strong fear of spending, but it is something they don’t do entirely consistently, especially in recent years. However, a newly proposed collective bargaining agreement would give the team a mandatory push in their spending ways.
Major League Baseball introduced a new proposal towards a new collective bargaining agreement to the MLB Players Association on Thursday, which would implement stricter restrictions towards both a salary cap and floor.
In this instance, the Orioles would see themselves standing in the midst of an interesting spot. Considered a market that stands towards the mid-to-large realm, the Orioles’ current 2026 salary would sit right beneath the proposed salary floor of $171.2 million.
Per Spotrac’s calculations, Baltimore owns a payroll of approximately $167.89 million, which sits around the median line of payrolls league-wide as the 16th highest in the league. With the proposal in mind, it would put the Orioles in a position to spend even further in the foreseeable future.
The proposal comes in a near immediate response to the MLB Player Association’s opening offer, which would tax teams that wound up spending under $150 million. In that case, the Orioles would find themselves above the threshold, but not by a comfortable margin.
Two of Baltimore’s newest contracts put them just under the proposed salary floor. Their two highest paid players, Pete Alonso at $21 million and Chris Bassitt at $18.5 million, were both signed by the team in the recent offseason.
Without those signings, and without Baltimore taking that rare leap in spending money, they would sit well below the proposed salary floor that would give teams a push and decrease cheap spending habits. For the Orioles, the proposal may be what David Rubenstein needs to improve the team even further.
In the recent couple of years, the Orioles have not struggled to produce homegrown talent, developing the likes of Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. But those two, along with other homegrown talent, will rely on eventual paydays as they get towards the end of their arbitration and pre-arbitration contracts.
While their payroll sits below the proposed floor, it does sit as a drastic improvement from what used to be one of the lowest spending totals in the league. In 2022, the Orioles had a payroll of just under $45 million, per Spotrac. That improved gradually, as it reached $111 million in 2024, and improved over $50 million that number in 2025.
The active collective bargaining agreement is set to conclude at the end of the 2026 season. Significant distance divides both sides of the negotiations in its early stages, as baseball seems to be in question ahead of 2027.
Continue reading...
The Baltimore Orioles have never had a strong fear of spending, but it is something they don’t do entirely consistently, especially in recent years. However, a newly proposed collective bargaining agreement would give the team a mandatory push in their spending ways.
Major League Baseball introduced a new proposal towards a new collective bargaining agreement to the MLB Players Association on Thursday, which would implement stricter restrictions towards both a salary cap and floor.
In this instance, the Orioles would see themselves standing in the midst of an interesting spot. Considered a market that stands towards the mid-to-large realm, the Orioles’ current 2026 salary would sit right beneath the proposed salary floor of $171.2 million.
Per Spotrac’s calculations, Baltimore owns a payroll of approximately $167.89 million, which sits around the median line of payrolls league-wide as the 16th highest in the league. With the proposal in mind, it would put the Orioles in a position to spend even further in the foreseeable future.
The proposal comes in a near immediate response to the MLB Player Association’s opening offer, which would tax teams that wound up spending under $150 million. In that case, the Orioles would find themselves above the threshold, but not by a comfortable margin.
Two of Baltimore’s newest contracts put them just under the proposed salary floor. Their two highest paid players, Pete Alonso at $21 million and Chris Bassitt at $18.5 million, were both signed by the team in the recent offseason.
Without those signings, and without Baltimore taking that rare leap in spending money, they would sit well below the proposed salary floor that would give teams a push and decrease cheap spending habits. For the Orioles, the proposal may be what David Rubenstein needs to improve the team even further.
In the recent couple of years, the Orioles have not struggled to produce homegrown talent, developing the likes of Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. But those two, along with other homegrown talent, will rely on eventual paydays as they get towards the end of their arbitration and pre-arbitration contracts.
While their payroll sits below the proposed floor, it does sit as a drastic improvement from what used to be one of the lowest spending totals in the league. In 2022, the Orioles had a payroll of just under $45 million, per Spotrac. That improved gradually, as it reached $111 million in 2024, and improved over $50 million that number in 2025.
The active collective bargaining agreement is set to conclude at the end of the 2026 season. Significant distance divides both sides of the negotiations in its early stages, as baseball seems to be in question ahead of 2027.
Continue reading...
