Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper stood nose to nose with Rob Manfred during a meeting between the Major League Baseball commissioner and the team last week, telling him to «get the f--- out of our clubhouse» if Manfred wanted to talk about the potential implementation of a salary cap, sources told ESPN on Monday.
The confrontation came in a meeting — one of the 30 that Manfred conducts annually in an effort to improve his relations with every team's players — that lasted more than an hour. While Manfred never explicitly said the words «salary cap,» sources said, the discussion about the game's economics raised the ire of Harper, one of MLB's most influential players and a two-time National League MVP.
Ahead of the expiration of the collective-bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association on Dec. 1, 2026, multiple owners have stumped for a salary cap in MLB, the only major men's North American sport without one. The MLBPA vehemently opposes a cap, which it argues serves more as a tool to increase franchise values than to lessen the game's large disparity between high- and low-spending teams.
Quiet for the majority of the meeting, Harper, sitting in a chair and holding a bat, eventually grew frustrated and said if MLB were to propose a cap and hold firm to it, players «are not scared to lose 162 games,» sources in the meeting told ESPN. Harper stood up, walked toward the middle of the room, faced up to Manfred and said: «If you want to speak about that, you can get the f--- out of our clubhouse.»
Manfred, sources said, responded that he was «not going to get the f--- out of here,» saying it was important to talk about threats to MLB's business and ways to grow the game.
Before the situation
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