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How the baseball season will be affected by the lockout.
The Baseball Tonight crew talks about the first labor dispute in 20 years. 2:34
11:01 AM
The union's proposal for greater free agency and wider salary arbitration would damage small-market teams, the commissioner said hours into the first work stoppage in 26 years.
The players were locked out at 12:14 a.m. The sport's five-year collective bargaining agreement expired Thursday.
After six seasons of major league service, players can become free agents. The Major League Baseball Players Association proposed that the age be changed to six years or five years and the second option to be dropped to 29.5 by the year 26.
Existing provision or age eligibility would be retained by MLB.
"We already have teams in smaller markets that are difficult to compete in, and that's what we're going to do," he said. It's even harder for them to compete when they can't control players. It's bad for fans in those markets. When a player leaves via free agency, we don't see that as a positive, because it makes it earlier, available easier.
The start of spring training is in jeopardy because of the work stoppage.
The players' association made an aggressive set of proposals in May, and they have refused to budge from the core of those proposals. Things like a shortened reserve period, a $100 million reduction in revenue sharing and salary arbitration for the whole two-year class are bad for the sport, bad for the fans and bad for competitive balance.
A full season requires an agreement by early-to-mid-March.
"It's not productive to talk about drop-dead deadlines at this point," he said. I'm not going to do it.
Tony Clark was going to hold a news conference.
Negotiations have made little to no progress since they began. The only way to speed up the process was with a lock out.
People need to be pressured to reach an agreement. We didn't feel that sense of pressure from the other side.
The union's desire to have more teams chasing players leads to more competition on the field and higher salaries, and management's desire to restrain salaries in an effort to prevent high-revenue teams from gaining an even greater percentage of stars is the core of the dispute.
"I've been watching this game for more than 30 years," he said. It's a lot harder to win in our smaller markets than it is in our bigger markets, according to most people who understand the game.
