Nine days into a marathon negotiating session that left all involved weary and worn, Major League Baseball and the MLBPA entered the bargaining room early Tuesday morning with a chance to save Opening Day. The union was being pushed to reach a middle-of-the-night agreement on the new collective bargaining agreement by MLB. Behind the scenes, team officials were making whispers to anyone who would relay them to the public. On the other side of the table was a union that was not going to accept a substandard offer.
One veteran player said that they need to stop being treated like idiots.
Communication involves a lot more than just talking. Baseball finds itself here today, threatening to self-immolate for all to see, because of the lack of listening and the unwillingness to change that paradigm.
The first week of the regular season was canceled on Tuesday after the sides failed to reach a new deal by a self-imposed deadline. He had warned weeks earlier of the disastrous outcome of losing games, and here he was, standing in front of a microphone, trying to spin the league's offer as substantive.
It was for the league. The players walked away from the league's final offer because of its low competitive-balance tax thresholds.
The players are always encouraged by the league's stance. The MLBPA's first statement in response to MLB's announcement was to accuse the league of trying to break our Player Fraternity. Star players are willing to miss a full season. This effort will fail, as has been the case in the past. We are committed to getting a fair deal.
The owners and players have always been at odds, and in these negotiations it has grown more apparent. People need to do less talking and more listening. There is no fundamental issue that warrants putting the entire season at risk. The road map for compromise was provided by the players and the commissioner Tuesday.
League officials wondered what the union really wanted to achieve as the union presented a suite of questions. Andrew Miller, an executive subcommittee member, said Tuesday that the core goal of the negotiations is to increase competition.
Competition, fixing service-time manipulation, getting players paid earlier and removing restrictions on spending are some of the clear tenets of the union. MLB tried to address each through proposals with minimal likelihood of adoption and more serious approaches. As the clock wound down on MLB's deadline, it felt like compromise, even on things that should have been shared goals.
There were some successes. Even if they start the year in the minor leagues, MLB will give a full season of service time to the top rookies. Another win was the implementation of a six-team draft lottery. The league was willing to move from a 14-team playoff proposal to the union's preferred 12. The players were worried that 14 would decrease teams inclination to spend in free agency because they could sneak into the playoffs with mediocre records.
The expansion of the playoffs to 14 teams is a key addition for the owners, and it is even more of a lever now that the league will take away games. Bruce Meyer, the union's lead negotiator, said he expects players to be paid for a full season regardless of how many games are canceled. Expansion of the playoffs will be pulled from any agreement that does not include it.
The more games it loses, the longer the league waits to give in certain areas. The less games it loses, the less likely it is to pay. The prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue over the course of an agreement should give players enough motivation to speak up.
Regional sports networks that carry local broadcasts for games not played are the other leverage point left for the players. Between 138 and 150 games are broadcast depending on the team. The basis for a widely shared view among players is that teams are fine missing the first month of the season because of the rebate threshold and low attendance.
The cancellation of games resulted in a delayed start to the MLB season.
The players have to believe that they will use the last few carrots. The players have to hear clearly all the clues that were shared Tuesday. He managed to lend insight into the league's priorities, despite the platitudes that fell flat during his media briefing.
He said there was a payroll disparity problem.
Whether it is a problem or not, this is an exercise in listening, and payroll disparity is important to owners. There are many solutions that do not involve an artificially low competitive balance tax. The union wants to give incentives to teams that win through extra draft picks. Low-revenue franchises could be helped by the commissioner's discretionary fund. The union should help find the solutions that are elegant.
Cutting through his rhetoric helped find another issue. During the two seasons, revenues and franchise values increased by more than half a billion dollars, according to Forbes. He said that the sport suffers from revenue problems on the day he canceled the things that enrich it.
An oral history of the 1994 MLB strike. Tim Kurkjian.
The players should offer a solution if the owners are concerned with revenues. The players can relent on lower thresholds in the first two seasons of an agreement in exchange for higher ones later if the CBT is the issue dividing the parties the most. The league wanted to chart this course with a five-year proposal of more than 200 million dollars. The league wants $222 million and $227 million over the first two years, and more in line with the union's ask for the final three.
The final ask takes a leap of faith by the union, a small bit of trust that the league has not necessarily earned through its treatment of players.
It is a deeply cynical premise and it grows more dangerous by the day. Failure to reach a deal in the coming weeks will be devastating. There will be more games canceled. The ability to change games and get players paid for them will be hard to do. The longer they wait, the worse it gets.
Baseball is not Chicken Little and the best way to stop it is to stop it now. The sides will dig in because of pride and spite and the emotional tug that can change the season completely. Players lose $21 million in salary every day there isn't a game. Every day there isn't a game, teams move closer to having to give rebates to their RSNs.
As much as it is time to talk, it is even more important that the players and owners listen to one another. The league must give serious thought to the players' claims that they can be ready in three weeks. If the owners say they need more games to make up for lost games, the union needs to help.
It is not like this is foreign. The same parties figured out how to turn a three-week spring training schedule into an actual season during the most fearful stages of the Pandemic in 2020. It was not ideal, but the potential repercussions from his cancellation does not scream normal.
Chaos is the substitute for diplomacy. The problems run deep and the approach requires modification when not even a deadline can foster a settlement. There is a solution to this, a deal to be had, an agreement still within reach, a way to render the disastrous outcome pointless. They can see it, taste it, and even hear it. All they have to do is listen.
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