Even though Major League Baseball has had its competitive balance tax in place since 2002, any attempt by the league to implement a salary-cap system will be met with a hard "no" by the MLB Players Association.

Speaking to reporters Saturday, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said the union is "never going to agree to a cap."

Clark brought up the topic of a salary cap in response to MLB's decision to launch an economic reform committee.

The committee was created because of concerns related to Bally Sports' pending bankruptcy as well as "owners who are unhappy about the difference in the amount of money teams make," per The Athletic's Evan Drellich, who cited the spending by New York Mets chairman and CEO Steve Cohen.

Per Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal, Warner Bros. Discovery has informed teams whose games are carried on its regional sports networks that it wants to exit the RSN business.

Bally Sports and WBD account for 17 of MLB's 30 regional sports networks.

"We have businesses that are literally not similar in terms of the overall revenue that they're generating," Manfred said. "And to the extent that you could find a new distribution model that actually helped on that disparity side, that would be the daily double. So people are having conversations that haven't been had in baseball, and it's really been owners talking to owners, which is a good thing."

Manfred also noted the league has "to find a new model" with the uncertainty around regional sports networks, including potentially airing games digitally.

The Mets' $336.1 million payroll this season is almost $70 million more than any other team's. The New York Yankees and San Diego Padres are the only other clubs spending more than $232 million on their rosters in 2023. Nine teams will enter the season with a payroll under $100 million.

The NBA has maximum contracts for players based on a percentage of the salary cap. The NFL is a hard-capped league, and often the dollar amount of contracts aren't representative of how much they are actually worth.

A good example is Derek Carr's "extension" with the Las Vegas Raiders, signed in April. It was reported as a three-year, $121.5 million deal, but the Raiders just released him last week with a modest financial cost of $5.6 million for the 2023 season.

MLB has 12 players signed to contracts worth at least $300 million. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the only NFL player with a deal worth more than $260 million.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić is the highest-paid NBA player with a $272 million contract.

Despite the payroll disparity that has existed in MLB for a generation, a salary cap does not seem likely. A cap generally benefits teams and owners because players are limited in how much money they can make.

There's also the question of how much money teams bank on an annual basis. Maury Brown of Forbes reported in January that MLB raked in a record $10.8 billion in revenue during the 2022 season.

Since most teams are privately owned, they aren't going to share their financial information. The Atlanta Braves are owned by Liberty Media, a publicly owned corporation, making the club's financial information available.

Per financial details from the company (h/t Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal Constitution), the Braves made $568 million during their championship season in 2021.

While most teams don't have the benefit of a long playoff run to add revenue, it's difficult to imagine that owners are struggling because of how much money is coming into the sport.