Scott Boras decries MLB owners who wear 'floaties' as Brewers-Rays World Series comes with salary cap debate

MLB's small-market World Series begins on Friday night ahead of a looming labor fight

Oct 23, 2026 at 11:07 am ET • 4 min read

MILWAUKEE — The Brewers and Rays have bullied their way through the postseason. Sure, they've had their share of fights. Tampa Bay needed six games to get past the Guardians. Milwaukee's NLDS win was tight. But for the most part, these two clubs have imposed their will on the opposition, leaving little doubt about their place on baseball's biggest stage.

Now, they'll meet in the 2026 World Series, beginning Friday night at American Family Field.

Yet while their presence here is widely viewed as a triumph for two of baseball's smaller spenders, who entered the postseason with a combined payroll of just $241.8 million, their success comes against the backdrop of a brewing labor war.

And depending on which side of the bargaining table you sit, this World Series is being viewed as either an argument for a salary cap or evidence that baseball doesn't need one.

"I think the fact that two teams like the Brewers and the Rays, we hear all the time that we play baseball the right way, that it's exciting to watch," Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said during Thursday's news conference when asked about a salary cap. "I think they probably hear the same. I think that's good for baseball.

"So whatever that means relative to revenue systems or otherwise, I think if you have a more competitive set, you can have more exciting baseball."

Small-market Fall Classic

MLB ranks for the Brewers and Rays

	Brewers	Rays
Payroll	19th	28th
TV market	30th	14th
Team value	21st	24th

"This has been our goal for 22 seasons, to compete," Attanasio added. "And that said, I think the system that's being proposed, which is similar to other leagues in terms of revenue-sharing system, not only will help us compete but more importantly all of the teams with lower payrolls too, which is something also I think the fans want."

Mega-agent Scott Boras sees things differently. He believes the current system works, as evidenced by the success of the Brewers and Rays. A salary cap, in his view, isn't the answer. Rather, it's about ownership groups making smart decisions, investing in talent and fully committing to building a winner, regardless of market size.

"Look, in the major-league pools, there are a lot of ownership groups that swim, and there's a lot of owners that just choose to wear their floaties all the time," Boras said. "And so, how do they get rid of their floaties? And the answer is, they either have to do it through talent, or they have to do it through investment and acquisition of talent to go out and compete."

Boras pointed to the NBA as a cautionary tale, arguing that basketball's salary-cap system has limited owners' ability to reach deep into their pockets to retain star players, even homegrown talents such as former Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who was traded to the 76ers in July in part because of salary-cap constraints and the financial implications of keeping multiple stars on massive contracts.

"We don't want things like what happened in the NBA, where LeBron James is making $4 million, worth $60 or $70 million," Boras added. "And the Boston owner wants to keep his stars, but he has to sell them, and they can't reward their talent accumulation and intellect as owners because of a false system."

Investment goes beyond the product on the field. The Rays and Brewers have shown that establishing the right culture and organizational infrastructure is just as important to sustained success.

The Rays, for example, have Kevin Cash, a Tampa Bay native and the longest-tenured manager in baseball, in their dugout. Then there's Pat Murphy, who spent eight years in the Brewers organization before taking over as manager ahead of the 2024 season. The culture of both organizations runs through those two men.

But the identities of these franchises extend well beyond their managers. Both teams know exactly who they are, and their commitment to scouting and analytics reflects that. According to MLB Network, the Rays (80) and Brewers (64) have two of the largest scouting departments in baseball, while both rank among the top seven in analytics department size. Those figures don't necessarily reflect how much each organization spends, but they underscore the emphasis both place on identifying, evaluating and developing talent.

"It starts with people and process," said Matt Arnold, the Brewers' president of baseball operations, who spent nearly a decade with the Rays before joining Milwaukee in 2015. "[The Rays] have had an incredible run. Really good people that are scattered all throughout the industry at this point. We have a little bit of a different formula here, and they have a really good formula there obviously, and we learned a lot from each other."

The two sides have learned plenty from one another. And in the looming labor war, they'll find themselves at the center of the debate, too.

For Boras, the heat should be on the owners wearing floaties, not the economic structure of the sport.

"The mere fact that some owners choose not to invest, and they're profiting at high levels, making $100 million a year, and owning a franchise and not being successful. That is not a reason to change the system," Boras said.