Major League Baseball has no salary cap, just a $244 million threshold, escalating tax rates, and a Dodgers front office that's turned paying it into strategy.

A Celtics investor refused to accept a 1979 salary cap unless the team could always keep Larry Bird. The exception the league carved out still runs free agency.

Tennessee opens 2026 with $94.8 million in unused cap space; Dallas opens $56.1 million in the hole. The gap comes down to one often-misunderstood rule: carryover.