Sources familiar with the situation told ESPN that Major League Baseball's first labor proposal focused on a narrow set of issues that did little to encourage players and heightened the likelihood of spring training being postponed.
The league proposed changes to the arbitration system for players with two-plus years of service, as well as tweaking its proposed draft lottery and giving teams the ability to earn draft picks if top prospects find early success in the majors.
After the sides' failed negotiations led to six weeks of inaction, MLB hoped the proposal would spur discussion with the union. Changes to the competitive-balance tax and raising the minimum salary were topics not discussed on Thursday. The union could include both free agency and changes to the revenue-sharing plan in a counterproposal, even though the league indicated it was not open to considering free agency before six years.
The union's rejoinder could be crucial to getting pitchers and catchers to report on time, as the threat of losing regular-season games becomes more realistic, according to multiple sources.
The players were disappointed in the proposal. Major League Baseball changed its system of paying players with between two and three years of major league service time, offering an increase in money going to those players through a formula that would determine their pay.
The salaries of two-plus players are different. The top 22% of players in the class who have the most service time are designated as "Super 2s" and given an extra year of eligibility to negotiate their salaries. The other 78% can be renewed by teams above the minimum salary. The current system that includes Super 2s and the performance-based proposal would be the one that players would choose if they had one day of service.
The immediate reaction from players was negative, with fears that the scale for two-plus players would open the door to the same in other players, sources said. The precedent-based system in which players compare their statistics to past players' is how the salaries are determined.
The league tried to address service-time manipulation by rewarding teams that promote top prospects who find success.
If a team puts a top 100 prospect on its opening day roster, the player would be awarded a draft pick if he finishes in the top 3 of the voting for the Most Valuable Player or the Cy Young Award within his first three seasons, according to sources. Sources said that the league is pushing for a change in the signing of non-domestic amateurs and that the offer included a pick in an international draft. If a player won the first award and then the second award, the second pick wouldn't go to him.
When the league proposed using the Wins Above Replacement system from FanGraphs to replace the arbitration system, players were skeptical. The idea of incentivizing teams to break camp with their best 26 players is a goal of players, but the baseball writers who have turned prospect lists into a successful industry did not appeal to them.
The union countered the league's proposal with eight teams, which it had previously proposed with three teams. According to sources, MLB wanted a team to be ineligible for the lottery in three consecutive seasons.
Sources said that MLB continued to push for a 14-team playoff, as opposed to the 12-team version the union proposed.
Previous discussions did not make much progress toward a deal. Direct draft-pick compensation, which penalizes teams that sign top free agents, was offered to be eliminated by the league. The Competitive Balance Threshold was proposed to be increased from $210 million to $214 million but the union said it would allow teams to place advertising patches on uniforms.
Most of the core economic issues are still chasms. The players had proposed increasing the CBT threshold to $245 million and amending revenue sharing. The union's next offer could clarify which of those are the union's greatest priority.
That may offer a better idea of whether the first work stoppage in more than a quarter century takes the early days of spring training as its only casualty or continues into the regular season.
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