MLB and the Players Association have not agreed to a new CBA for this season despite a full week of in-person negotiations.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Tuesday that the league is cancelling the first two series of the 2022 regular season. The decision comes after a week of face-to-face meetings between ownership and the players union regarding a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Since the last one expired December 1, there has been little progress between the two sides to reach an agreement covering the next five years.
Union leaders in the Jupiter, Florida meetings this week consist of executive director Tony Clark, lead negotiator Bruce Meyer, and executive subcommittee members Andrew Miller and Max Scherzer. Along with Manfred, deputy commissioner Dan Halem and Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort have been presenting the league’s position. Monfort runs MLB’s labor relations committee.
The league, with the commissioner as the public face, is fully responsible for the deflating position we find ourselves in. The owners initiated the lockout of their own accord to get the ball rolling on negotiations, but they waited over a month before making another proposal. They could have kept the offseason going under the previous agreement while negotiations continued, but instead they are wasting games to avoid paying players more. There was nothing “defensive” about this lockout.
The Final Days of Talks
Both sides have been quite frustrated at the lack of movement from the other, but union leadership has made it clear that there did not need to be a deadline this week, and they want to continue negotiating. They nearly walked away Saturday following another incremental proposal by the league, but there was some notable progress Monday. MLB and the players had by far their longest day of meetings, staying at the stadium until after 2 am. The union held some cautious optimism Tuesday Morning, but that vanished by the evening.
The league’s final offer Tuesday afternoon was still far from reasonable, prompting Manfred to cancel games when the players rejected the proposal. While this is not a universal belief, he and many others around the league think there must be at least four weeks of preseason build up before the regular season. At the start of the shortened 2020 season, there was a barrage of pitcher injuries after just three weeks of build up and three exhibition games.
MLB’s Misguided Priorities
At the owners’ quarterly meetings last month, Manfred said that losing games would be a “disastrous” outcome. He was right, but clearly he doesn’t think losing games is as bad as spending money the players deserve. Instead of earning good will by giving a sliver of the money pie, the owners still lose money from cancelled games, and they lose whatever remaining trust the players and fans had left.
During the same February press conference, Manfred claimed that owning an MLB franchise is riskier than investing in the stock market. That is patently false. Owning a “Big 4” franchise is quite possibly the safest purchase someone can make. Every MLB team is worth over one billion dollars, with the Miami Marlins and their awful record and attendance selling for $1.2 billion in 2017. MLB is a business, but Manfred apparently thinks baseball is only a business and not a sport that millions pour their heart and soul into.
I am not taking the players’ side merely because I believe in workers’ rights, but because they have legitimate grievances regarding how MLB operates. The average salary has gone down for four straight seasons. MLB-ready prospects are held back to gain an additional year of team control. Front offices rely more on pre-arbitration players to save money that they do not necessarily spend elsewhere. Most big-market teams have stopped going over the Competitive Balance Tax so that their owners don’t have to pay a little extra. Some teams have purposely fielded horrible rosters to get better draft picks and build a contender through the farm system.
Common Sense From One Side
What the union has been asking for is not at all unreasonable. They want player salaries to grow parallel to team revenue. Players should to reach free agency sooner so that they can get paid what they deserve. The union wants the league minimum salary to be higher so that a sizable percentage of players with short careers can support their families long term. Baseball players want their teams to try and win every year.
The owners have been so unyielding that the union backed off on many of these demands over the past week. Shorter roster control was always a nonstarter with the owners, and they even refused to expand Super 2 eligibility. The second-year players who qualify for arbitration will still be 22% despite expanding eligibility only costing teams a few million dollars each.
There will be a higher league minimum, but MLB’s figure is still short of the union’s lowered offer. Again, a figure around $750,000-850,000 is chump change to the owners, yet they won’t go over $700,000. They are offering nominal increases to the CBT, with the 2022 number a full $18 million short of the union’s most recent number. A big bump this year would only close the gap in revenue compensation, not make up for it.
The two sides are close on the number of draft picks included in a lottery, and there will be a designated hitter in the National League. But they are much further apart on a new bonus pool for young players. The union wants to spread over $100 million around to stars with low salaries, but the league is only offering $20 million. Now with cancelled games, the union won’t accept expanded playoffs, their main bargaining chip.
Lasting Unity
Baseball insiders have wondered the last few years whether union members are in full agreement about their goals, but no one doubts them now. As the owners and commissioner continue to lie to the public, the players stand united in fighting for their most vulnerable members. I will leave you with their official statement in the wake of Manfred’s cancellation:
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