The signing of Kyle Tucker by the Los Angeles Dodgers may have been the final straw for many on the path towards a work stoppage in Major League Baseball. And you can count longtime ESPN reporter Tim Kurkjian among those who feel it is now inevitable.
Tucker is yet another free agent that the Dodgers were able to sign to a nine-figure deal, furthering the divide between the haves and the have-nots in the sport. And while the Dodgers are in their own stratosphere of spending, even compared to heavy hitters like the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox, the gap to the bottom half of the Major Leagues in payroll is becoming astronomical. The Dodgers will pay more in luxury tax in 2026 than 11 MLB teams will spend on their entire roster.
So even though MLB is enjoying great success in ratings and attendance and seeing healthy growth for the sport, in addition to salvaging a new TV deal with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix, labor strife could soon return to the national pastime.
In an interview with Dan Le Batard, Kurkjian sees MLB as reaching the point of no return.
A baseball work stoppage may be inevitable in 2026 pic.twitter.com/EVEjsdYfFh
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) January 21, 2026
“I think there’s going to be a work stoppage also, although I pray all the time that that doesn’t happen,” Kurkjian said. “I’m not blaming all of this on the Dodgers because the Dodgers do an exceptional job of drafting and developing, and when they get a player from another team, he routinely gets better when he comes to the Dodgers.”
Tim Kurkjian highlighted the major issue in baseball: the spending gap between big-market and small-market teams. But while a salary cap has been floated as a possible fix, the ESPN reporter believes it will be a non-starter for the players.
“But there’s no doubt there are major issues in disparity among the small market teams and the big market teams and it’s not going to be solved by a salary cap because there’s just no way the players are going to allow that to happen. So are the Dodgers a part of the problem? Of course they are. But so are the Mets and the Yankees and a bunch of other teams. And baseball needs to fix this and it is not going to be an easy fix,” Kurkjian added.
While a salary cap would help big-market teams spend less, a salary floor would also be needed to make small-market teams spend more competitively. Of course, it’s hard to see thriftier MLB owners wanting to rush to sign up for that either. Given so many people have so many different interests and goals in mind, this could be one of the stickiest labor negotiations we’ve seen in recent sports history. And given MLB’s past troubles, it’s the last thing the sport needs while it’s riding a wave of momentum.
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