This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.
The WPBL announces its first four cities, sort of
The Women’s Pro Baseball League will play its inaugural season in 2026, and used this week where baseball fans are quietly waiting for the World Series to make some announcements. First, the first four cities were selected, and they make a whole lot of sense: New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. All four are historic MLB cities with massive media markets and fan bases, which should give them a built-in edge when it comes to getting attention.
At least, when the league gets around to actually playing in those cities: games will be played at neutral sites at first, with these teams simply representing those cities, not playing in them, until such time that they are ready to actually move into them. Whether that’s 2027 or later is unknown, but given the league plans on actually having six teams sooner than later, you imagine they’re going to try to sort that out in a hurry.
Jen Ramos-Eisen had some reporting on various conditions for the league on Thursday. There is a salary “budget” per team, of $95,000, and there are 15 players per team. So, an average of $6,333 per player, with their actual salary determined by where they were selected in the draft. Said draft will be held in November. While the games will be played at neutral sites, the league is providing housing for the players, so they won’t end up in a situation like with MLB’s minor leagues before they instituted housing and living wages, where players couldn’t afford to play road games.
I’m curious to see how all of this goes, especially since MLB decided to throw its financial weight behind softball and Athletes Unlimited earlier this year, which read as a clear signal that they see softball as the baseball equivalent for women, not baseball. Whether they ever take an interest in this as part of the One Baseball initiative, or the WPBL is left entirely to its own devices, is something we’ll just have to see play out.
WNBA collective bargaining is getting heated
The WNBA’s players opted out of their collective bargaining agreement a year ago, which means it’s actually set to expire on Oct. 31 of 2025 instead of the original end date. As I wrote at the time:
The league is booming, in its popularity, in its attention, in its revenues. Wanting more significant salaries is part of what will be negotiated, yes, but as ESPN got into in a detailed report, there are all kinds of issues the players are concerning themselves with. Pensions, more support for players with children, improved facilities for practices and games, and they don’t want the league to grow in the way it already has and is projected to do further without their input and benefit. Increased salaries is one thing, but softening the salary cap into something more flexible than the current hard cap is a must. Terri Jackson, the executive director of the WNBPA, said, “We’re getting to a point where the salary cap and the systems and that part of the business needs to start looking like a professional league that’s not a startup, that properly values the labor and properly values the players.”
Throw in that a couple of expansion teams will be arriving for the 2026 season, putting even more of a spotlight on the league and giving it additional room for growth — the plan is for even more expansion teams beyond those in the future — and it makes a lot of sense that the players would want to get started on all of this as soon as possible. The TV deals are bigger, the league is bigger, its popularity and place in the general zeitgeist both growing. Why wait?
The two sides are fighting a lot more openly and angrily than they did the last time that the players opted out, which makes sense — the owners, a group largely composed of NBA owners pulling double duty, do not want to lose any more of the profits from the W than they already have. The two sides are arguing over how money should even be shared, to the point that the WNBA is claiming that they proposed an “uncapped” revenue-sharing model that would grow along with the league, while the players’ response was to basically say that the league doesn’t know what uncapped means if they think that proposal fits the bill.
This after Napheesa Collier used her exit interview for the 2025 season to — deservedly — rip into commissioner Cathy Engelbert for being generally combative and terrible at the parts of her job that aren’t “running interference for the owners.” A lot of attention is on what’s going to happen in MLB post-2026, but the WNBA is the league most clearly in trouble of not having their next season played.
Please.
Speaking of MLB and salary caps and the like: stop falling for it. Please, I’m begging you. No more “if the Dodgers win, it’s over, the owners will have all the ammunition they need to argue for a salary cap.” No, they won’t. And as I wrote for Baseball Prospectus in a story published today, they don’t need reality to reflect their wants and desires, anyway. They say what they want, when they want, regardless of whether it’s true or can even be stretched to the point of breaking to appear that way.
There are issues to be worked out in MLB in terms of finances, but the actual problems can be solved with a revised revenue-sharing model, not capping spending. Shift the money around so that there is more for other teams to spend, don’t simply stop the Dodgers from spending outright — it will just allow the teams that already aren’t paying up to continue on that route, to the detriment of the players now and later.
Over at FOX Sports, I was part of a project ranking the World Series champions of the 21st century. I spent a whole lot of time in the last month building these rankings out, from criteria to actual rankings, and writing copy for them, so, please enjoy. Also if you don’t agree with something I had nothing to do with this project at all, who am I, what’s FOX Sports? That’s the beauty of non-bylined work, baby.
I also wrote about the top 10 World Series runners up of the century, as a bit of a bonus, and there should be a piece — likely today? — on the 10-best postseason teams to not even make it to the World Series, so keep an eye out for that. The Mariners haven’t suffered enough this year, I guess. Plus, a look at the most memorable World Series MVP performances of the century. I’ve been pretty busy with all of this for a while now, as well as writing something of a starter guide for the more casual fans who are tuning in for the World Series, and wondering just who these non-Shohei Ohtani players are.
Visit my Patreon to become a supporter and help me continue to write articles like this one.