Is Rob Manfred Actually Right About MLB Fans' Biggest Complaints?

These next few months are going to be integral to the long-term health of Major League Baseball.

Right now, things are good. Viewership around the league has skyrocketed throughout the 2026 season. On top of this, Game 7 of the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays was the most-watched baseball game since 1991, with an average of 51 million people watching. The world is paying attention to what Major League Baseball is doing right now and with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of the 2026 season, that could be a bad thing.

Fans are paying attention to the ongoing negotiations between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association. On Wednesday, the MLBPA made the first move and sent over its first proposal to Major League Baseball. It had a wide range of items the MLBPA is looking for, including a "competitive-integrity tax" for any team that does not spend at least $150 million, an increase in the minimum salary across the league, and a higher CBT threshold, among many other items. The league squashed it quickly.

That's not shocking. There will be surely plenty of offers from both sides. But if this thing carries past the expiration of the current CBA and causes an issue that impacts games being played in 2027, it's going to be a disaster. There are a lot of good things happening in baseball right now, like the ABS system, but if squabbling billionaires and millionaires impact the games being played, there surely won't be much support from fans across the league. With that being said, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred joined "The Pat McAfee Show" on Wednesday and made two points that he thinks the fans care about in negotiations right now.

Rob Manfred Spoke

Oct 27, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred before game three of the 2025 MLB World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

"I think the first is everything that we've done, the rule changes, ABS, we made those changes based on fan input," Manfred said. "Fan polling. We pay a lot of attention to what our fans are saying. The one thing that they're the biggest on right now is the lack of competitive balance in the game. I think that's going to be the cornerstone issue of the negotiations with the MLBPA. From our perspective, we think if we can improve our competitive balance, we're going to grow the game in a way that will be beneficial to everybody. Players, owners, the whole group.

"The second thing is the RSNs. The RSNs were a huge boost for us, those local broadcasts from a revenue perspective for years and years. Obviously, with the cord-cutting that has gone on, that model has kind of started to fray and fall apart around the edges. We need to make sure we find a way to deliver our local games to our fans."

Is Rob Manfred Right?

Is he right about these points? There's certainly some truth to the idea that parity around the league being good for the game. Everyone wants to point to the dominant Dodgers, but a good counterpoint would be that the Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series did have viewership numbers through the roof. Despite Los Angeles' dominance, the fans are watching.

Also, how do you fix the parity issue? Some have pointed to the idea of a salary cap, but arguably what that does is punish the teams actually trying to win — like Los Angeles — in favor of the teams — like the Miami Marlins — who aren't willing to spend. The idea of big markets and small markets shouldn't be as big an issue as it is seeing how these teams are owned by billionaires. Every team can do what the Dodgers have done, for the most part. A salary floor arguably would have more of an impact than a salary cap because then that at least would limit some of the spending issues.

There are six teams spending below $125 million this season. There are five teams spending over $300 million this season. That is an aggressive difference and something needs to be done. But if you put a salary cap in, let's say at $300 million, you'd still have those teams at the bottom not making the effort to spend more. The Marlins' tax payroll is just over $80 million right now. The Cleveland Guardians are at just over $87 million. After that, the number jumps up to over $109 million with the Tampa Bay Rays.

That's arguably a bigger issue. If the No. 30 team is spending roughly $29 million less than the No. 28 team, that's a clear sign of a club avoiding investment. So, why should the Dodgers, who are trying to win, be penalized for simply using the tools at their disposal while other teams actively choose not to?

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