PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Paul Skenes, Juan Soto and Bryce Harper are among baseball’s All-Stars who say players will never agree to a salary cap but maintain there’s plenty of time to avoid a conflict that could shorten the 2027 season.
“Both sides kind of have their line that they’re not going to cross," Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace who is also a member of the union's eight-man negotiating committee, said Monday. “Whether that results in missing games or missing a season, we’ll see.”
Baseball's five-year labor contract expires Dec. 1 and MLB is expected to immediately lock out players. The more consequential deadline is in late February or early March, when Major League Baseball would announce whether it was postponing opening day.
Owners proposed a salary cap for the first time since the union fought off MLB's cap plan with a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that caused the first cancellation of the World Series since 1904. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says a cap is needed to lessen payroll disparity.
Soto, who signed a record $765 million, 15-year-old contract with the New York Mets as a free agent after the 2024 season, would be limited to a $265 million, six-year deal under MLB's proposal.
“Yeah, that sucks,” Soto said. “It shouldn’t be there.”
MLB’s proposal would cap spending in 2027 at $245.3 million, using figures for luxury tax payrolls that include $20.1 million for benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. It also would establish a payroll floor of $171.2 million, forcing some teams to spend more.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball’s biggest spenders, had a $415.2 million payroll on opening day this year. MLB has not made a proposal on how to phase in a cap, a process that would be key for high-spending clubs such as the Dodgers.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, at 34 in the eighth season of a $426.5 million, 12-year contract, said players are aware of the proposal's intent.
“It’s trying to minimize the years and obviously the totals. For sure, we see that,” he said. “I think baseball's in a good spot right now and we can’t mess this up."
Harper, in the eighth season of a $330 million, 13-year contract with Philadelphia, said he couldn't conceive of any scenario in which the players' association would agree to a cap.
“The opportunity for players to get paid is what this is all about,” Harper said, citing the union's legacy of fighting MLB since Curt Flood helped unite players in the 1970s. “We owe it to the guys that have come before us to do the same thing.”
Harper, who signed his first major league contract at age 17, also vowed to fight MLB's proposal to ban a player from signing until he was at least 20 years old by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class. MLB says college baseball provides a better development path.
“If you’re in the top three rounds as a high school kid, I think you should be able to do whatever you want,” Harper said. “It would really be tough for a guy like Jackson Holliday to not be the number one pick and not get the chance to go to the big leagues at 19 or 18 if he’s able to.”
Bargaining began in May and is expected to resume after the All-Star break. The union has asked for expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights along with almost doubling the major league minimum.
Pirates pitcher Braxton Ashcraft viewed the early negotiations as “back-and-forth proposals that may or may not be unrealistic.”
Skenes, a 24-year-old right-hander in his second full big league season, could see a sharp decrease in potential contract offers under MLB's system. He currently is on track to become a free agent after the 2029 season and has a $1,085,000 salary in his last season before arbitration eligibility. He also has earned nearly $5.6 million from the pre-arbitration bonus pool that started in 2022.
“MLB is kind of presenting their perfect-world offers and we’re kind of presenting our perfect-world offers," Skenes said. “So there’s a lot of time before there’s any real movement, I think.”
San Diego's Mason Miller, baseball's top closer, also could become a free agent following the 2029 season. A 27-year-old right-hander, he is earning $4 million this season.
“I still have some optimism,” he said. “The place that the game's at right now, I think killing that momentum is kind of fruitless for everybody.”
AP Assistant Sports Editor Jake Seiner contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper speaks with members of the media during the MLB baseball All-Star Week, Monday, July 13, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Braxton Ashcraft, left, and Paul Skenes arrive to speak with the media during the MLB baseball All-Star Week, Monday, July 13, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, has been named as her late brother's temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate after his unexpected death over the weekend.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced at a news conference at the Statehouse on Monday that Nordone would serve the remaining months on Graham's current term, which expires in January. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said afterward that she will be sworn in Tuesday afternoon.
Nordone will be the first woman to represent the state in the Senate.
“It is such an honor,” she said, as dozens of Graham staffers and campaign advisers stood behind her, some with eyes glassy from welling tears. “Lindsey has always been there for me. And now, I will be there for him.”
Graham died on Saturday night at age 71. He never married or had a family of his own, but Nordone was often by her brother's side for the political touch points of his career, speaking at events and appearing in some of his campaign ads.
After their parents died at a young age, Graham was left to raise his sister, for whom he later became legal guardian. They were very close, and she was there as he filed reelection paperwork earlier this year, along with her children and grandchildren.
“To Lindsey, I miss you more than I can even put into words," Nordone said, emotion rising in her voice. "But I'm going to do this. I got it.”
Introducing Nordone, McMaster said the two had spoken in “in the wee hours of Sunday morning” after Graham's death, and he asked her to serve.
“I had wondered what you would say, and I was humbled by your quickness to see the duty that you had to serve,” McMaster said. He added that President Donald Trump “thought it was a great idea” when he later told him of his pick. Trump announced his support for Nardone to fill the seat earlier Monday.
Nordone has worked as an optician and at various state agencies, including the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and the Department of Employment and Workforce. She lives in Lexington, is a graduate of the College of Charleston and has a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling.
A special election will be held next month to pick a new Republican nominee in the general election for Graham’s seat. He had been seeking a fifth term this year.
The rare open Senate seat has ignited a scramble among South Carolina’s most ambitious conservatives, who have been eager to climb the political ladder.
Republicans just finished a sprawling and bruising contest to figure out their nominee for succeeding McMaster, who is wrapping up his second term. State Attorney General Alan Wilson won the nomination, overcoming a field that included Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Rep. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman — all of whom are now eyeing Graham’s seat following his death over the weekend.
According to South Carolina law, a one-week filing period for a special primary election begins on the second Tuesday after the candidate’s death, or July 21.
The special primary election would be held on the second Tuesday after that filing period closes, or Aug. 11. Any necessary runoff would follow two weeks after that, or Aug. 25.
From that point, the new nominee would have just over two months to campaign for the general election on Nov. 3.
All of this is problematic according to federal law, which requires military and overseas ballots to go out 45 days before any federal election. For the special election primary, that would have been June 27. Federal Election Commission officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking clarity about the process.
Graham died on Saturday night, and a preliminary medical examiner report said he suffered a tear in his aorta, known as an aortic dissection.
In the hours after Graham's death was announced, South Carolina’s Republican circles were already swirling with rumors about possible replacements.
Evette, who has served nearly eight years alongside McMaster and received his endorsement in the governor's race, is one possibility. She lost the June 23 runoff to Wilson.
Mace and Norman could run in the special primary as well. Neither of them are running for reelection to their House seats.
But another Republican from the state, Rep. Russell Fry, could be a possibility. The two-term lawmaker represents the growing area around Myrtle Beach, and he's been a top Trump ally.
Businessman Mark Lynch, whom Graham defeated in the primary, may jump into the race. So could Mark Sanford, the state's former governor who served two separate stints in the House.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who lived in South Carolina before joining the Trump administration, has fielded calls about potentially replacing Graham but doesn’t have interest in the role and enjoys working for the president, according to a person who insisted on anonymity to describe private conversations.
No Democrat has won a Senate seat in South Carolina in decades, and Republicans in recent history typically take statewide seats by double digits. When Graham last ran in 2020, he defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.
So while history suggests that Graham was en route to a fifth term, Republicans are carefully surveying the landscape.
Charleston pediatrician Annie Andrews won the Democratic nomination last month and has raised more than $8 million in the race, and she had just under $3 million cash on hand at the end of May, according to federal filings. Graham had taken in $6 million, with just over $4 million on hand.
In a statement Sunday, Andrews called on South Carolinians to join her “in setting partisanship aside and offering gratitude" to Graham for his service.
Harrison, noting that he and Graham “had our share of political disagreements,” wrote on social media that he “always appreciated that even in our fiercest political battles, we could still share a conversation, a laugh, and a mutual respect for South Carolina and the institutions we were both privileged to serve.”
Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
Kinnard reported from Charleston, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster speaks to media to announce the appointment of Darline Graham Nordone to fill the vacancy created by the passing of her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, at the statehouse Monday, July 13, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
Newly appointed U.S. interim Senator, Darline Graham Nordone, with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, right, and Sen. Time Scott (R-SC), left, speaks to members of the press after being appointed of to fill the vacancy created by the passing of her brother, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, at the statehouse Monday, July 13, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
Newly appointed U.S. interim Senator, Darline Graham Nordone, with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, right, speaks to members of the press after being appointed of to fill the vacancy created by the passing of her brother, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, at the statehouse Monday, July 13, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
FILE - Vice President Joe Biden, right, administers the Senate oath to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., left, as Graham's sister Darline Graham looks on during a ceremonial re-enactment swearing-in ceremony, Jan. 6, 2015, in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accompanied by his sister Darline, left, speaks at the GOP headquarters in Columbia, S.C., Sept. 1, 2015, where he filed for the South Carolina Presidential Primary. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro, File)
FILE - Darline Graham Nordone, sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., walks to the stage before his announcement for presidency on Monday, June 1, 2015, in Central, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, File)
FILE - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster speaks to reporters, May 5, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, File)
FILE - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., takes the oath of office with Vice President Dick Cheney, right, during a re-enactment swearing-in ceremony in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 7, 2003, following his election to the Senate. (AP Photos/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks as Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listen, at a primary election night party at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
