Financial constraints have limited his ability to add a high-salaried player to upgrade baseball's worst offense.

Any perceived pressure to play the high-salaried players "certainly was clarified," Wilpon said.

The Pirates are in last place, and its underfinanced owner has shed high-salaried players.

Some of our high-salaried players are in jeopardy, I guess you could say, of not returning.

He said he was losing $20 million a year and began cutting the team's payroll by trading away high-salaried players.

"I just didn't have the ability, with the high number of high-salaried players we have, to give him that kind of increase."

The bulk of the money for the high-salaried players on each team, however, comes from sponsors such as Nike.

The players' proposal included the implementation of a tax system for high-salaried players.

Torre does not want any of his high-salaried players, particularly the new ones, to think they have to do more than they can.

The players, Hunter said, have proposed a $15 million cap for high-salaried players with more than 10 years of experience.