CLEARWATER, Fla. — The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for Bruce Meyer.
Tony Clark, the previous executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, abruptly resigned (allegedly due to an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who also worked with the MLBPA) on Feb. 17. The very next day, Meyer, MLBPA's lead negotiator since 2018, was unanimously elected to replace Clark on an interim basis. Now, he finds himself at the head of an acerbic collective bargaining agreement negotiation.
Meyer's new job position led him to Clearwater. As part of a series of visits with MLB clubhouses, Meyer and additional MLBPA representatives spoke with the Phillies on Wednesday morning.
"Generally, players are very focused on bargaining, on the upcoming round of bargaining," Meyer told OnPattison. "The players want to know kind of what the issues are going to be, and what our priorities are."
There are a few issues to be haggled out in negotiations, but none is more pressing than the two-word phrase currently haunting MLB players' dreams: salary cap.
MLB notably operates without a salary cap. Thus, owners are essentially left to their own devices. The owners who spend tend to win... and the owners who don't, don't.
"Owners are generally not allowed to talk to me," Meyer joked. "I think they all have, obviously, a lot of common interests, One of those common interests is in keeping players' salaries down, and keeping as much control over the player's career as possible."
According to Jon Heyman of The New York Post, a projected salary cap could top out around $260-$280 million and bottom out around $140-$160 million. That would devastate not only individual players, but also teams like the Phillies, whose projected 2026 Opening Day payroll of $311.2 million, according to Spotrac, is far above that threshold. The Phillies already have $203.7 million in commitments for 2027.
"The Phillies are a great organization that puts winning first, that seems to go out of its way to try and put great players on the field, and will spend money to do that when they need to, which is obviously something that we like," Meyer said.
"We look to the Phillies as an example of a team that's trying to do the right things for its fans."
According to Spotrac, the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2026 payroll of $381.6 million leads MLB. In stark contrast, the Miami Marlins' $78.6 million payroll sits squarely at the bottom of the list. That's quite a striking level of disparity, but Meyer believes a salary cap would act as a major roadblock for teams who want to spend the big bucks to win for their fans, such as the Dodgers and the Phillies.
"Look, we're very cognizant of the fans. I actually think the salary cap system is worse for the fans, because it basically prevents teams that want to make their team better from doing so," Meyer said. "It basically is an ultimate restriction on competition, and on the ability of teams to do what they think is best to build the best team for their fans."
As far as competition is concerned, a number of factors have hindered the Phillies' attempts to get John Middleton's trophy back. Chief among them are the multiple players who have failed tests screening for performance enhancing drugs. Within 10 months, José Alvarado, Max Kepler and Johan Rojas have all tested positive for PEDs; Kepler was technically a free agent when he failed his test, but on Sunday night, Rojas became the third member of the 2025 Phillies to face suspension.
In those 10 months, MLB's only positive drug tests have come from the trio of Phillies and Jurickson Profar... twice. Is the sheer frequency of Philadelphia's positive tests an organizational concern?
"No, I don't think it has anything to do with the organization," Meyer said. "Every player is tested, and we have a system in place that deals with how that gets treated, and rights and protections that players have. I wouldn't think it would have anything to do with the organization."
Rojas declined to comment on his test, his suspension or his pending appeal when approached at his locker on Wednesday morning.
