How the Brewers and Rays Are Accidentally Undermining MLB’s Case for a Salary Cap

It’s no secret MLB’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, along with many owners want a salary cap. However, there are two teams that are accidentally ruining baseball’s attempt for an MLB cap. In this article, I’m going to dive into how the Brewers and Rays are undermining MLB’s case for a salary cap, and why it’s something really important to watch in the playoffs this year. Let’s get into it.

The Brewers clinched a playoff spot on September 11, 2026, with the 11th-lowest payroll in all of MLB, comfortably in the bottom half of the league. Two days later, they became the first team in 2026 to clinch their division (NL Central). That's remarkable considering they traded away Freddy Peralta, Rhys Hoskins, Jose Quintana, and many others during the 2025-2026 offseason, yet they are now the best team in baseball. They've made the playoffs eight times in the last ten years, including this one, thanks to a consistently top-five farm system and excellent drafting, all without ever spending much money. They even lost their regional TV deal this offseason, so their broadcasts are now run by the league office. The craziest part, though, is that the Dodgers have more than double their payroll and three fewer wins (93-60 to the Brewers' 96-58). In short, the Brewers pay their players less and win more.

The Rays are in a similar spot. They clinched a postseason berth on September 12th with the 3rd-lowest payroll in all of baseball, just ahead of the Guardians and Marlins. At the time of writing this, the Rays sport a 93-60 record and sit 4.5 games ahead of the Yankees in the division. Like the Brewers, they lost their TV deal when Main Street Sports filed for bankruptcy, and their games are now broadcast by the league. The Rays also run on a cycle: they use their talent to compete for a short window, trade it away for prospects, and then let those prospects carry the next run. That small window is why they missed the playoffs in 2024 and 2025 after making it five straight years from 2019 to 2023, including finishing runner up in the World Series (to the Dodgers) in 2020.

There is one major caveat, though. Neither of these small-market teams has ever won a World Series, and the last small-market champion was the 2015 Kansas City Royals, who beat the New York Mets over almost 11 years ago. That gives Manfred a perfect opening to argue for his salary cap. In my opinion though, a deep playoff run by the Brewers and/or Rays would hand the players and their union an extremely strong argument against a cap, which adds extra drama and should be something everyone will want to watch in the postseason that lies ahead.

Thanks for reading!