Team owners of the Major League Baseball (MLB) want to limit the contract length of the players, according to commissioner Rob Manfred. The MLB Players Association (MLBPA) executive director Tony Clark soon responded that they would not approve of any such limits.

"A reform that has been of interest to ownership for a number of years is a limitation of contract length," Manfred said at Sports Business Journal's World Congress of Sports conference in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday. "Obviously players love it, it gives them financial security for a very long period of time. The difficulty – and I think players will come to appreciate this as time goes by – those contracts result in a transfer from the current stars to yesterday's stars. At some point, that has to be true. And I think it is an issue that is important for us to stay focused on, because it creates inflexibility that affects the quality of the teams that you put on the field."

There have been 23 major league players with a contract of 10 or longer years. The biggest one in total salary number was the 12-year, $365 million deal signed by Mookie Betts with the Los Angeles Dodgers; Mike Trout inked the 10-year, $360 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels to get the best average salary; the San Diego Padres kept Fernando Tatis Jr. with the longest contract of 14 years for $340 million.

Clark made the MLBPA's attitude clear in their reply to Manfred's remarks. "The public statements from Rob Manfred about the owners' desire to limit guaranteed contracts is just one more in a series of statements attacking fundamental aspects of baseball's free market system and the freedom of clubs and players to structure deals in the best interests of all parties," he told The Athletic.

"The ability of individual clubs to act in their own self-interest in determining how best to put an exciting product on the field for their fans is not something that should be restricted. Anyone who believes that players would ever endorse an assault by management on guaranteed contracts is badly mistaken," Clark added.

The MLB and the MLBPA reached a new five-year collective bargaining agreement in March 2022. The process in which they did it delayed the beginning of the 2022 season. The MLB has a different financial situation from the NBA, NFL and NHL because the baseball league doesn't have a salary cap.

That's why there is a world of difference between the total payrolls of the leading New York Mets ($346.6 million) and the Oakland Athletics ($58.2million) at the bottom of all 30 teams. Moreover, when a team owner is willing to spend, he can sign a series of long, big contracts on short notice.

For example, Peter Seidler, owner of the Padres, first signed the league's first 14-year contract with Tartis Jr. and then gave both Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado an 11-year deal. The team currently has the third-most payroll of all 30 teams: $246.5 million, behind only the two New York teams, the Mets and the Yankees.