MLB Closing: MLBPA Makes First Proposal Since Games Canceled, Showing League Claims ‘Retreat’

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association gathered for more than 90 minutes on Sunday. The meeting included the MLBPA’s submission of a proposal, the first since MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred scrapped the first two series from the 2022 schedule last week, as the owner-imposed shutdown lasted into the third month and became the first in league history to waive the regular system. season.

Perhaps the most notable development in the union’s proposal was their willingness to give Manfred and the League the ability to implement three field changes with only 45 days’ notice, According to Ivan Drillic of Athletic. (At present, the league must offer the league a year’s notice of such changes.) These three exceptions include the stadium clock fixing, larger rules, and shift restrictions. The rule changes won’t be allowed to go into effect until next year, or head into the 2023 season.

And ESPN’s Jesse Rogers said on Sunday that the league wanted it “Create a 14-second stadium clock with the bases blank and a 19-second timer with the runners,” as a way to improve speed between stadiums.

Below is a summary of the rest of the MLBPA proposal, For every drill:

• The union reduced its pre-arbitration award request from $85 million to $80 million. The owners previously proposed a central fund of $30 million, which means the gap there is still large, at $50 million.
• The union waived no basis for its request for the competitive balance tax to start at $238 million and grow to $263 million. The league faced a CBT threshold starting at $220 million and slowly rising to $230 million. Arguably this was the most important button issue in the negotiationsAnd the Four owners reportedly voted no for the proposal based on the CBT limit only.
• Nor did the union take any action regarding its demand for a minimum salary above $725,000 with annual increases of $20,000. The league offered a minimum of $700,000 with annual increments of $10,000.
• The federation wants a sweepstakes project to determine the six top picks each summer as a way to curb anti-competitive behaviour. The league wants this lottery to cover only the top five picks.

Drillish added that the union is now fine with “other CBP-related penalties” if the “direct choice compensation” disappears. In addition, the union continues to push “some changes in revenue sharing”, even though the university has been unwilling to engage in those changes throughout the negotiation process.

MLB never came away elated. Via The Associated Press:

“We were hoping to see a move in our direction to give us additional flexibility and get an agreement done quickly,” MLB spokesman Glenn Caplin said. “The Players Association chose to come back to us with a proposal that was worse than Monday night and was not designed to move the process forward. On some issues, they even went backwards. Simply put, we’ve hit a dead end. We’ll try to find out how they respond, but nothing in that proposal. It makes it easy.”

The union also proposed to meet again on Monday, According to Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post,. But this is not official yet.