Major League Baseball has proposed capping free agent contracts at five years for players switching teams and six years for clubs retaining their own players under a new collective bargaining framework presented to the MLB Players Association on Thursday. The changes would take effect after the 2027 season.

The league's six-year retention provision, dubbed the Cornerstone Player Provision, mirrors the NBA's Bird Rights system, allowing teams to offer longer deals to keep their own free agents. Under the proposed salary cap structure, a free agent moving teams could sign for a maximum of five years and $202 million, while a team retaining its own player could offer six years at $265 million.

The league also proposed raising the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1 million in 2027 for players with at least two years of service time, the largest single-year minimum increase in MLB history. Players with fewer than two years of service would receive a $900,000 minimum plus an automatic $100,000 bonus from the Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool upon completing a full season.

Additionally, MLB proposed allowing players who reach five years of service time by age 30 to become eligible for free agency, one year earlier than the current six-year threshold that has been in place since 1976. The league also proposed eliminating deferred contracts and the qualifying offer system.

The league has initially proposed a salary floor of $171.2 million and a ceiling of $245.3 million per team beginning in 2027.

The MLBPA pushed back sharply, rejecting both a hard salary cap and maximum contract lengths.

"These misleading offers are designed to look like 'improvements' but are of little or no value, given they are expressly conditioned on agreement to the league's cap system which eliminates the free market," the union said in a statement. "Owners' attempts to pit players against players are nothing new, but they've failed in the past and will fail again now."

MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin defended the proposals, saying the salary cap structure would level the playing field for small-market clubs and allow the league to share revenue with players on a 50-50 basis.