Earlier on Sunday, the MLB reportedly offered the MLBPA a proposal to delay the start of spring training and the season by one month, allow a season of 154 games and provide players with a total payout of 162 games.
According to a follow-up article in The Athletic written by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, there are reasons to believe that players will reject the league’s proposal on Monday. If that happens, spring training seems likely to start on time in mid-February, with the Mets regular season starting on April 1.
There are several reasons cited for players not considering the proposal acceptable. Among them are the following:
There is no guarantee that all 154 games would actually be played, as the season would be compressed (although it took two weeks longer than originally planned). If games are postponed for any reason, it will be more difficult to invent them. The commissioner may have the authority to cancel, rather than postpone unplayed games, which may impact the proposal for full payment of players’ salaries. There is no real guarantee of full payment in the proposal.
Players feel that the delay can affect their typical training regimes and can set the stage for injuries during the season.
Universal HD remains a bargaining chip and a point of contention between the two sides. The league is willing to offer universal DH (which can result in some high-paying functions for players like Marcell Ozuna and Nelson Cruz) in exchange for expanded playoffs. The MLBPA is not in favor of expanding the playoffs, as it fears that the format will discourage teams from spending on players, as more teams would qualify for the postseason. The league is offering $ 80 million to the player pool for the expanded playoffs (the league placed $ 50 million in the pool in the reduced season of 2020), which is the same amount as the 2019 season, the last full season played with fans in the stands .
And then there’s the biggest problem of all, the ending of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) after the 2021 season and the need for comprehensive negotiation before the 2022 season. Players may be reluctant to agree to expanded playoffs now ( apparently the main issue for owners) and may prefer to keep that high-value chip for use when the sides sit down to discuss a new CBA. Players are expected to seek measures at the next CBA to increase overall competition, such as a reverse luxury tax that would effectively serve as a mandatory floor on teams’ payrolls.
If you’ve been a baseball fan for a while, you know that the sides just don’t trust each other. As noted by Rosenthal and Drellich, players are afraid that Commissioner Rob Manfred will be free to cancel games if conditions (COVID) are considered unsafe, impose doubleheaders and otherwise implement measures that will impact payment and time. of service of the players.
If players reject the MLB offer, with such a short time before the expected start of spring training, it is unlikely that a new proposal impacting the start of the camps can be made. The HD issue could be agreed before the start of the season, as well as the expanded playoffs (the latter was agreed very close to the start of the 2020 season).
It is almost incomprehensible that we are 17 days away from pitchers and catchers and there are still doubts about the date of the report and the rules under which the season will be played.
Then again, after the labor issues that have marked the baseball scene since the early 1970s, this may not be a big surprise.
