Traditionally, the end of the football season has signified the unofficial beginning of baseball season for many.
Unfortunately, you may have heard that it’s not business as usual for baseball right now.
On December 2, shortly after the expiration of the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement and with no new CBA in place, Major League Baseball locked out the players. It meant players on 40-man rosters – those that are represented by the Major League Baseball Players Association – couldn’t have any contact with team personnel, utilize team facilities, etc. It also meant a transactions freeze, with clubs only allowed to make signings of the minor league variety.
It’s been 10 weeks and the lockout is still in effect, which means pitchers and catchers will not report to spring training this week as previously scheduled. The Grapefruit and Cactus League schedules had been slated to kick off in less than two weeks, but that’s not going to happen.
The level of progress that MLB and the MLBPA have made in CBA negotiations depends on who you ask, but you’re not going to find anyone willing to say that an agreement is imminent. The general feeling is that the two sides will have to bridge the gap by March 1 in order to avoid a delay to the start of the regular season. If you don’t have a calendar handy, that’s in two weeks.
If you haven’t been keeping tabs on the MLB-MLBPA negotiations on a day-to-day basis, we’re going to do our best to fill you in here. We’re obviously not in the room to hear the back-and-forth, but there has been plenty of great reporting on the matter so that we’re able to give you the bullet points.
What has been agreed upon?
When commissioner Rob Manfred met with the media last Thursday, he revealed that the two sides have agreed to the implementation of the universal designated hitter. It’s something which has been anticipated for a while, but it is nice to hear the commissioner say it out loud, even though it won’t become official until a new CBA is agreed upon.
Manfred also revealed that MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to do away with draft pick compensation for free agents. Teams can still be awarded a pick in some instances if they lose a player in free agency, but no longer will a club lose a pick for a free agent signing.
The two sides have agreed to the idea of a draft lottery, although how many teams would be involved remains a matter of debate. MLB wants to limit it to the teams with the three worst records from the previous season, whereas the MLBPA wants eight clubs to be eligible.
Playoff expansion has also, in effect, been agreed to, although the two sides do not yet agree on the number of teams. MLB wants to expand from 10 to 14 clubs. The MLBPA prefers 12.
Advertising patches on uniforms was proposed by the league and accepted by the union, provided that MLB agrees to the MLBPA’s economic proposals.
What do the players want?
The MLBPA wants a bonus pool for players not yet eligible for arbitration. After initially balking at the idea, MLB has agreed, but the gap in dollar amounts of the pools is massive. The players initially asked for $105 million and are now at $100 million, while MLB inched up from $10 million to $15 million. Needless to say, there’s a lot of work to do here.
The players want the Competitive Balance Tax (aka the luxury tax) threshold to be bumped to $245 million in 2022 and to $273 million by 2026, up significantly from the $210 million it was at in 2021. The league, meanwhile, has hardly budged, suggesting $214 million in 2022 with minor increases in subsequent years. MLB also wants to significantly increase taxation rates for exceeding the thresholds. The luxury tax threshold has remained relatively static the last few years even as revenues in the game grew, so you can understand why this is a point of contention for the players.
The MLBPA wants to raise the minimum salary from $570,500 to $775,000. Meanwhile, MLB in their most recent proposal offered a flat rate of $630,000 or a tiered system which would max out at $725,000.
In hopes of curbing service time manipulation, the players have proposed rookie-eligible players having the ability to earn an additional year of service time based on performance. MLB has countered with an offer of teams being able to net draft picks if a player finishes in the top three of voting for multiple awards.
The union was initially asking for players to reach free agency earlier, raising the possibility of a player hitting the market after five years if they were 29.5 years of age by a certain date. However, after MLB seemingly indicated that was a no-go, the MLBPA backed down, taking the ask off the table and keeping the free agency threshold at six years.
What does MLB want?
The status quo?
It may seem like an oversimplification, but not really, considering the last CBA agreement was considered a huge “win” for the league. For the owners, this is basically a game of how little they can give back. They’re generally just fine with the way things are.
MLB has asked for the implementation of an international draft. While the MLBPA agrees that changes are needed in regards to the process for teams acquiring talent from Latin America, they do not concur that an international draft is the best way to go about it. Maria Torres and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic have written extensively on the subject.
Another potential change which MLB would like to institute is the reduction of the size of the Domestic Reserve List, aka how many players a team can have in its minor league system. Currently, that number is at 180 during the season and 190 for the offseason. The league would like the ability to cut that number down to “below 150” in future years, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
An additional proposal MLB made was to limit how many times a player can be optioned each year at five. However, there are other unknown conditions attached to that proposal which the MLBPA isn’t keen on. The players would like the cap to be set at four.
The league would also like to re-introduce the draft-and-follow concept, a process which would allow a team to draft a player and send them to junior college for a year before potentially signing them.
So what’s next?
It’s the MLBPA’s turn to submit a counterproposal after they were “thoroughly unimpressed” by the proposal MLB put forth during a meeting on February 12. The union is expected to have their proposal to the league ready sometime this week, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Can the two sides come together on a new CBA by around March 1 to avoid delaying Opening Day? Manfred projected optimism last week and is on the record as saying missed games would be a “disastrous outcome.”
The clock is ticking.
Quick Hits: Andy Martino of SNY.tv has reported that Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns will become a free agent if the team wins the National League pennant. It’s been reported previously that the Mets have interest in Stearns, who is a native New Yorker. … The Athletics have signed Eric Thames to a minor league contract.
