|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 8:14:23 GMT -5
Chris Dixon @cdixon25 Players offered a decent counterproposal to the owners’ three options and instead of continuing negotiations, MLB slammed the door and cancelled more games.
Stop blaming the players. 7:40 PM · Mar 9, 2022
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 10:58:32 GMT -5
Jon Heyman @jonheyman · 23m There’s optimism back in the baseball talks today. We’ve been here before, but the deal where the sides work on an equitable world draft throughout the year, then eliminate the qualifying offer once they get it done, makes perfect sense. As for the $, they aren’t that far apart.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 11:00:33 GMT -5
Bob Nightengale @bnightengale · 1h Lockout Day 99: No formal negotiations are scheduled this morning but the two sides are expected to speak and determine if they can reach a compromise on delaying an international draft decision until Nov. 15, and complete negotiations on a new CBA to still resurrect full season.
Current MLB-MLBA economic proposals: LUXURY TAX MLB:$230M,$232M,$236M,$240M,$242M MLBPA:$232M,$235M,$240M,$245M,$250M NON-ARB POOL MLB:$40M,$40M,$40M,$40M,$40M MLBPA:$65M,$70M,$75M,$80M,$85M MINIMUM SALARY MLB:$700K, $715K, $730K, $750K,$770K MLBPA:$710K,$725K,$740K,$760K,$780K
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 11:01:31 GMT -5
Evan Drellich @evandrellich · 1h MLB, MLBPA are still discussing qualifying offer, international draft, but gaps remain on other issues too, and sides intend to talk all day today. Like yesterday, a lot of that might be by phone, but communication is constant. Players made last global counter offer yesterday.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 11:06:57 GMT -5
We’re so owned
The power of rich men to make people believe what they say is kinda staggering. By bryanjoiner@bryanjoiner Mar 10, 2022, 9:45am EST
The owner-imposed lockout of the players of Major League Baseball has now resulted in the owners canceling another week of regular season games, and at this point it’s clear that these guys are willing to burn a significant portion of the season to get their way.
Or, rather, it was always clear, but they’ve done a decent job of throwing all but the most dedicated truth-tellers off the scent. They even got me in these very pages two weeks ago, when I actually believed their willingness to simply show up at the negotiating table meant anything whatsoever.
Now they keep revising their deadlines and pulling the football any time the union’s proposals get close, then turn around and blame the players for not kicking said football. It would be embarrassing—it is embarrassing—but, sadly, it seems to work. You don’t have to look very hard on Twitter to find fans who have bought their crap hook, line and sinker, and who blame the players for a lack of baseball that is 100 percent caused by the owners.
For the billionth time: The old Collective Bargaining Agreement did, in fact, expire, but unlike when, say, a driver’s license expires, you can continue to use a CBA until you have a new one unless one of the two parties does something drastic and ill-conceived in a petulant, transparent ploy to increase their already considerable power, as the owners have done now. There’s no baseball right now because they care about money more than baseball, full stop.
I mean, just a few days ago the league announced a new partnership with Apple to stream Friday night games, except there’s no baseball to stream right now. The degree to which this pierces through the league’s patently false money-losing rhetoric is like a worm eating through an actual apple; the whole thing is rotten to the core.
The real story of this lockout is how the players are united, seemingly to a person, in not letting the owners pull this crap anymore. These are the most competitive guys in their fields, and are effectively led, in Max Scherzer, by the most competitive guy in their field, and they’re acting in unison to stop their bosses from screwing the lowest guys on the totem pole around anymore.
It’s pretty inspiring! Of course, pull up Twitter and you’ll find trolls complaining that players make too much money and all the same nonsense people have said for 100 years. And the truth is that some players make too much money. They are usually veterans who signed contracts right at the point their skills started to decline, usually for top dollar, signed because they were trying to make up lost wages on the front-end enabled by MLB’s team-control system.
So that’s what fans think of when they think of bad contracts. And you’d think that’s what the owners are trying to get rid of in this agreement, right? Except they’re not. Those contracts are what the players are trying to eliminate, by opening avenues for younger guys to get paid better. In fact, I’d argue that those terrible contracts act as loss leaders for the owners by poisoning the well so thoroughly that we reach a point like we have now where fans refuse to do the slightest bit of critical thinking over who is truly overpaid and why.
And, of course, those contracts are awarded by the owners, a group of people so entitled and largely used to getting their way that they can impulse-buy a player for $80 million, sour on him three months later, and get sympathy from fans who see the players as eminently replaceable, which they’re not, due to a handful of admittedly grotesque deals.
The bottom line is to stay strong against this tide for one reason: The players are trying to make this system better. They’re trying to get rid of the bad contracts. They’re trying to protect players from an international draft that’s not ready for prime-time. They’re trying to improve the game. The owners just want more money. Choose your fighter; I’ve chosen mine.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 12:10:37 GMT -5
Jon Heyman @jonheyman · 32m MLB, players have agreed to draft/qualifying offer part which was the biggest sticking point yesterday. Parties have until July 25 to work on a fair International Draft, and if they get it done, the qualifying offer will be removed and the International Draft will begin In 2024.
Union awaits counterproposal on $. Look close but a bit of work needed, mostly on bonus pool.
MLB CBT: 230M in ‘22 to 242M in ‘26 Union CBT: 232M in ‘22 to 250 in ‘26
MLB Bonus Pool: 40M all 5 years Union: 65M in ‘22 to 85M in ‘26
MLB minimum: 700M to 770M Union: 710M to 780M
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 12:29:03 GMT -5
Jon Heyman @jonheyman · 10m Sides are not far apart enough on $ to mess this up now (I don’t think). Could go back and forth a couple times. But no excuse not to finish this today.
If MLB and the players union get it done today, and there’s no reason they won’t at this point, there still will be a 162 game season. Plan has been to make up games on off days and at the end of the schedule (but it may take a doubleheader or 2)
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 14:26:32 GMT -5
Following Progress On International Draft, MLB Submits Full Counterproposal To MLBPA
By Steve Adams | March 10, 2022 at 12:28pm CDT
12:28pm: The union has received MLB’s new counterproposal, tweets ESPN’s Marly Rivera.
10:43am: The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that with the international draft and qualifying offer disagreements now resolved, the league is preparing to make a “full proposal” to the union. As of this writing, MLB had not yet countered the final proposal received by the MLBPA yesterday.
10:29am: Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have reached a provisional agreement regarding the international draft, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter thread). The two parties have set a July 25 deadline to determine the specifics of an international draft that would go into effect beginning in 2024. If a deal on the draft is reached by July 25, the qualifying offer system and the associated draft-pick compensation will be eliminated. If the two sides do not reach a deal on the draft, the qualifying offer system will remain in place — as will the current international amateur free agency structure.
While this is a step shy of an agreement to actually implement the draft itself, it’s nevertheless a major hurdle that has been cleared on the path to the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement. Discord regarding the league’s desire to trade the elimination of the qualifying offer system for an international draft yesterday derailed talks and led to commissioner Rob Manfred further postponing Opening Day until April 14. The MLBPA’s final proposal to the league included a similar provision to the one agreed upon today, with a Nov. 15 deadline to agree to the draft instead of the newly proposed July 25 deadline.
With the theatrics surrounding the theoretical international draft’s implementation and the qualifying offer system now set to the side, it would appear, ostensibly, that the focus can shift back to the core economic issues that have been the crux of recent negotiations. While the international draft was framed as a sticking point yesterday and garnered a huge portion of the attention, there are still some gaps to bridge on key economic issues such as the competitive balance (luxury) tax thresholds, the newly proposed bonus pool for pre-arbitration players and, to a lesser extent on the league-minimum salary.
As of yesterday afternoon, the MLBPA had dropped its asks on the new CBT thresholds to $232MM in 2022, $235MM in 2023, $240MM in 2024, $245MM in 2025 and $250MM in 2026. The league’s prior proposal included proposed thresholds of $230MM, $232MM, $236MM, $240MM and $242MM over those respective years. In essence, the two parties face respective gaps of $2MM, $3MM, $4MM, $5MM and $8MM in that five-year span.
There’s a wider rift on the pre-arbitration bonus pool, with the union yesterday dropping its proposal to $65MM (presumably with the same $5MM annual increase previously sought). Ownership, meanwhile, has countered with a flat $40MM pool that will not increase at all over the CBA’s five-year term. That $25MM gap is sizable on the surface, though it does boil down to a matter of $833K per team — scarcely more than the new league-minimum salaries that will be going into place.
On that note, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes reported yesterday that the MLBPA had dropped its proposed league-minimum salary to $710K — narrowing what was a $25K gap to just a $10K gap between MLB’s proposed minimum of $700K. Both parties have agreed that the minimum salary would rise by $70K over the five-year life of the CBA, so the difference at this point rests solely on that small difference in starting point. Of all the issues, this would seem to be far and away the simplest to bridge.
It’s hard not to be encouraged by progress surrounding what had emerged as a major roadblock, but optimism should still be tempered. The gaps on the CBT threshold and, particularly, the bonus pool for pre-arbitration players are still relatively prominent, and there’s no indication yet as to the extent to which MLB will move in its forthcoming proposal. It’s also eminently possible that additional hurdles will arise. Few foresaw the international draft playing such a prominent role prior to this week.
A pair of issues that shouldn’t serve as an obstacle, Dierkes further reports (via Twitter), are on-uniform advertising patches and the Athletics’ revenue-sharing status. Yesterday’s MLBPA proposal agreed to allowing advertising on player uniforms, and the union also agreed to reinstate the Athletics as a revenue-sharing recipient. Oakland did not receive revenue-sharing funds in 2021 or in 2020. They’d seen a reduced share in 2017-19, under the terms of the previous CBA — a penalty levied due to questions about whether the team had sufficiently invested those funds back into the on-field product and whether they’d made their best efforts to secure a new stadium.
Time will tell just what the owners’ latest offer brings, but even tempered optimism is a welcome change from last night’s tenor. Whenever the two parties finally reach an agreement, the floodgates could well open in a hurry. Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci said in an appearance on MLB Network this morning that free agency could potentially reopen the same day that an agreement is reached, for instance (Twitter link via MLB Network’s Jon Morosi). And it’s worth noting, too, that The Athletic’s Jayson Stark tweeted this morning that the league still viewed a 162-game season as a possibility.
It’d be premature to say an agreement is nigh, but the breakthrough from yesterday’s most prominent roadblock is a breath of fresh air as an increasingly stagnant lockout reaches its 99th day.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 14:27:14 GMT -5
MLBPA Reviewing Latest MLB Counterproposal
By Steve Adams | March 10, 2022 at 1:14pm CDT
1:14pm: Heyman tweets that MLB’s proposal calls for spring games to begin around March 17 and for Opening Day to fall on April 5. That would require backtracking on several of the games previously announced to be canceled or “removed from the schedule,” and ESPN’s Jesse Rogers adds that the remaining games would be made up through a series of doubleheaders that, notably, would be nine innings in length.
As notably, Rogers tweets that free agency could reopen as soon as tonight if the two sides reach an agreement and ratify the new CBA today. Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci suggested the same earlier today in an appearance on MLB Network.
1:09pm: The MLB Players Association has received the league’s latest counterproposal, as first reported by ESPN’s Marly Rivera, and is now in the process of reviewing the latest changes proposed by ownership. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that the newest proposal saw the league up its proposed pre-arbitration bonus pool from $40MM to $50MM. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, meanwhile, tweets that there have been a few more modest concessions made in terms of the competitive balance (luxury) tax threshold and the minimum salary. MLB increased its proposed luxury threshold in 2026 (the final year of the proposed CBA) — slightly closing what had been an $8MM gap. The league held firm on its proposed $700K minimum salary for the upcoming season but offered a $10K increase over the $770K it had proposed in 2026 — up to $780K.
The movement on the pre-arbitration pool is the most notable jump made. The two parties had been facing a gap of $25MM, with the players coming in at a $65MM pool in 2022. However, the larger issue is surely whether that pool will grow at all over the life of the agreement. MLB has been steadfast in its push to keep the newly created bonus pool static, whereas the players have sought a $5MM annual increase to the size of the pool.
On the CBT front, the two parties had previously faced annual gaps of $2MM, $3MM, $4MM, $5MM and $8MM over the life of the potential agreement. MLB has held firm on its $230MM, $232MM, $236MM and $240MM threshold proposals from 2022-25, but they’re now proposing a $244MM threshold in 2026.
Notably, Heyman adds that the league’s proposal requests that the MLBPA drop previously filed grievances against the Rays, A’s, Pirates and Marlins — suits that allege that those four organizations had not sufficiently reallocated their revenue-sharing funds toward improving the on-field product. That’s not a new request, MLBTR has learned, but it’s also not one to which the union has previously agreed. That will be among the many topics considered when the union takes its vote — which ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel suggests could be taking place right now.
Confoundingly, Rosenthal indicates that MLB has yet again attempted to set another “deadline” for players, this one at 3:00pm ET today — a bit under an hour from now. MLB’s repeated attempts to set a deadline have not resulted in a deal yet and have generally served to stall negotiations rather than encourage them. The union hasn’t felt compelled to stick to those league-implemented deadlines, but the fact that they union appears to be in the process of voting right now, rather than outright refusing the proposal, at least offers a notable departure from some of the previous and more contentious back-and-forths that have taken place. Also of note, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base tweets that if a deal is reached before that 3pm “deadline,” players will be allowed to begin reporting voluntarily to their Spring Training facilities as soon as tomorrow.
All of this movement comes after a morning agreement in which the two parties reached a provisional agreement regarding a July deadline to negotiate an international draft that would begin in 2024. If a deal is reached by July 25, the qualifying offer system (and the draft-pick compensation associated with it) will be eliminated. If no deal on the international draft is reached, the qualifying offer system and draft-pick compensation will remain in place, and the current international amateur free agency structure will remain in place.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 14:30:27 GMT -5
Jon Heyman @jonheyman · 32m Union expected to vote soon on MLB offer. Initial read: “Very promising except they want (2018) lawsuit dropped.” (MLB apparently included request for union to drop its lawsuit vs Marlins, Rays, A’s, Pirates)
If there’s an agreement today before 3 pm deadline players can start reporting to spring training tomorrow @danielalvarezee 1st mentioned
MLB proposed spring games to begin on or about March 17 and regular season Opening Day to be on or about April 5
Word from one agent: “We are down to the 2-yard line.” Others agree: things are promising.
Mandatory spring reporting date: March 13 (assuming this gets done)
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 14:31:22 GMT -5
Ken Rosenthal @ken_Rosenthal · 41m Latest MLB proposal, per source:
Luxury-tax thresholds - $230M to $244M over course of five-year deal. (increase of $2M in final year from last offer)
Pre-arb pool: $50M (increase of $10M)
Minimum salaries, $700K to $780K. (increase of $10K in final year)
3 p.m. “deadline.”
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 14:32:38 GMT -5
Mark Feinsand @feinsand · 10m As I just reported on @mlbnetwork , should the CBA be agreed upon and ratified today, Opening Day would likely be April 7. Spring Training games would begin March 17 or 18, and free agency and the business of baseball would be open TONIGHT
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 14:44:23 GMT -5
Jon Heyman @jonheyman · 9m Word is there are a couple Mets players concerned about the CBT, and one or two are arguing against accepting the MLB offer. Mets look destined to pay the biggest tax, and it’s possible they are concerned fourth tier relax could inhibit spending.
MLB also requests in offer that union 2020 Covid lawsuit be dropped.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 15:20:52 GMT -5
MLBPA Reviewing Latest MLB Counterproposal
By Steve Adams | March 10, 2022 at 1:55pm CDT
1:55pm: Heyman tweets that the MLBPA executive subcommittee “appears” to be voting against the proposal, though it’s not clear whether that’s a unanimous decision or whether there’s a split camp among the eight players on that committee. That’s an important distinction, as the MLBPA needs a simple majority among the 30 team union reps and the eight members of the subcommittee — a total of 20 yes votes. In other words, it’s still possible for the union to approve the deal even if the executive subcommittee is against it.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 10, 2022 15:23:03 GMT -5
Jon Heyman @jonheyman · 14m Team votes are coming on now (delivered by player reps) and so far they are in favor. So far players are going against the executive council.
Union votes yes on deal
Deal is agreed to
Players vote is 26-12 in favor. Baseball will be back!
|
|