Let Bryce Harper teach you how to negotiate

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The art of the deal

Major League Baseball is the only major American professional sports league that doesn’t set a cap on how much team owners can spend on payroll.

That means any rich kook with his heart set on hardware could, in theory, spend the GDP of Idaho in service of the pointiest prize in sports. While the Supreme Court has ruled that limiting the amount that billionaires can spend is un-American, the money men who run the league (and, yes, they’re all men) have recently realized they would like an easy out when a superstar comes to their office and asks for an extra $50 million or so.

That’s why MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was dancing around the idea of a salary cap during a visit with the Philadelphia Phillies last week, several years out from the next collective bargaining agreement negotiation between the MLB and the Players Association. It’s also why Phillies superstar Bryce Harper told Manfred, in no uncertain terms, to “get the f**k out of our clubhouse.”

President Donald Trump’s second term has been a bacchanal for bosses. He’s allowed the richest people in the country to have a hand in shaping policy. He’s promised sacks of government cash for the half-finished thoughts of tech billionaires. And he’s hacked apart the idea of stable government jobs, pushing through mass layoffs in contravention of the law and union contracts.

That’s why Harper’s unwillingness to even tolerate the whiff of anti-worker sentiment is so refreshing. The 32-year-old power hitter also loves to bunt, and he can tell when he’s being squeezed. His profane and immediate rejection of ownership class skullduggery is exactly the sort of energy workers will need to get through the next few years of anti-labor action.

You’re likely not as valuable to your organization as the future Hall of Famer is to the Phillies, so squaring up with the big boss and spitting profanity is probably not your best move. Still, the spirit of what he did is a useful guide. Giving an inch may only hurt the entry-level and the last-hired at first, but it’s bound to come for everyone who signs the back of a check eventually. Harper understands this innately, in a way that only a lifelong team sports player can, and he moved quickly to protect everyone around him from a wild pitch. Facing down a period where the law won’t protect you or your fellow workers, you should aim to be just as unyielding.

When management starts floating less pay for the same work, you have to refuse to play ball.

What do you think? What will American labor look like by 2028? Are you the Bryce Harper of spreadsheets? Tap the speech bubble icon and sound off in the comments.

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