Negotiations between MLB and the Players Association for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) are becoming even uglier than they have been in the past few weeks.
It seems like both sides alternate between good days and meetings with threats and animosity as the primary sentiments.
Monday was, or has been, definitely one of the latter.
According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, things could get even uglier.
“MLB today indicated a willingness to miss a month of games and took a more threatening tone than yesterday, sources briefed on the day’s first meeting between MLB and the Players Association tell me, @Ken_Rosenthal and @FabianArdaya. Full context of conversation not yet known,” he reported.
MLB today indicated a willingness to miss a month of games and took a more threatening tone than yesterday, sources briefed on the day’s first meeting between MLB and the Players Association tell me, @Ken_Rosenthal and @FabianArdaya. Full context of conversation not yet known.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 28, 2022
If MLB said to players that they are willing to miss a month of games, then the likelihood of a quick deal (i.e., this week) decreases dramatically.
MLB obviously doesn’t want to move too much on the competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold and penalties, and that’s a huge letdown for players.
Owners Are Definitely Not Helping Matters
The league has also shown an unwillingness to move too much from their minimum salary proposals.
They also want to implement changes at will and unilaterally.
It’s hard to envision the union conceding so many things yet again, so this time, the regular season being postponed is a real possibility.
Players are already making serious concessions: they wanted to compensate more players between 0-3 years of service time and have had to lower their demands.
They offered to come down from 75 percent of players with two years of service qualifying for arbitration to 35 percent.
The owners’ movement on the CBT has been minimal, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post reported over the weekend.
Players offered to come down 2M on the CBT thresholds (which started at 245M) each year from 2023 to 2025. MLB countered by offering to raise the CBT threshold in year two of the agreement from 214M to 215M.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) February 26, 2022
If they are getting ready to cancel regular season games already, things are definitely not looking up.
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