It looks as if the Owners are willing to move just a bit on the 220 million dollar competitive tax CAP they had proposed to the MLBPA. BUT ( see that big but ) only if the players are willing to give up more control of their futures.
Raise your hand if you still hate Rob Manfred and the #MLB owners #mlblockout pic.twitter.com/kh4mchwKDL — ⚾ J. Daniel ⚾ (@JDaniel2033) March 1, 2022
Here We Go Again
The league is demanding the Players Association to lower its proposal of an $80 million pre-arbitration bonus pool. Also, it wants larger penalties for teams that exceed the thresholds and a “streamlined process for implementing rules changes beyond the 2023 season.” In other words, the league wants to give more power to Manfred, and themselves. They want to be able to institute rules changes without the players consent.
Digging in
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, said the union’s latest proposal included a $5 million reduction in the pre-arbitration bonus pool but did not include any changes to the CBT proposal. MLBPA’s threshold for the luxury tax is $238 million and ends at $263 million, while the league hasn’t been willing to increase its offer, which starts at $220 million and increases to $230 million over five years.
MLB’s Glen Caplin: “We were hoping to see some movement in our direction to give us additional flexibility & get a deal done quickly. The Players Association chose to come back to us w/a proposal that was worse than Monday night & was not designed to move the process forward” — Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 6, 2022
MLB mouthpiece Glen Caplin said Sunday that the union “went backwards” on some of the items in its latest CBA proposal. Caplin added that the two sides remain “deadlocked.”
Little Things Mean Little
While the two sides haven’t been able to agree on the competitive balance tax, they have made minor progress in other areas. According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, they agreed to ban shifts, implement a pitch clock and make bases larger in 2023. You know all the stuff that wont get them back on the field. But makes for good looking press.
Players union agreed to allow MLB to ban shifts, implement a pitch clock and make bases larger in 2023, subject to those agreements fitting into a total deal. Union also rejected Robo umps for ‘22/‘23. MLB goal: to be able to streamline the process and add excitement ti the game. — Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 6, 2022
The league has already pushed back spring training and cancelled regular-season games through the first two series of the 2022 campaign USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that more cancellations are expected, with the season possibly being delayed until mid-April.
In addition, Nightengale reports the league and the union could meet again as soon as Monday in New York.
As i’ve said all along this will drag until the owners start losing TV revenue. As always you can follow / give me grief on Twitter @Tmurph2097