Earlier on Sunday, MLB allegedly offered MLBPA a proposal to postpone the start of spring and season training for a month, to allow a season of 154 games and to offer players a total salary of 162 games.
According to a follow-up article from Athletics written by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, there is reason to believe that the players will reject the league’s proposal on Monday. If that happens, it looks likely that spring training will begin on time in mid-February, with the Mets’ regular season starting April 1st.
There are several reasons why players do not consider the proposal acceptable. These include the following:
There is no guarantee that all 154 games will be actually played, as the season would be compressed (although it would take two weeks longer than originally planned). If games are postponed for any reason, it would be harder to invent them. The Commissioner may have the authority to cancel, as opposed to postponing unplayed games, which could have an impact on the proposed payment of players’ full salaries. There is no effective guarantee of full payment in the proposal.
Players believe that the delay could have an impact on their typical training regimes and could prepare the place for accidents during the season.
Universal DH remains a bargaining chip and a point of contention between the two sides. The league is willing to offer a universal DH (which could lead to some well – paid roles for players like Marcell Ozuna and Nelson Cruz) in exchange for extended playoffs. MLBPA is not in favor of extending the playoffs because it fears the format would be a deterrent for teams to spend on players, as more teams would qualify for the postseason. The league offers $ 80 million to the group of players for extended playoffs (the league put $ 50 million in the batch in the shortened 2020 season), which is the same amount as the 2019 season, the last full season played with fans in the stands.
And then there is the biggest problem of all, the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) after the 2021 season and the need for a comprehensive negotiation before the 2022 season. Players may be reluctant to accept the extended playoffs now (apparently the key issue for owners) and may prefer to hold that high value chip to be used when the parties sit down to discuss a new CBA. Players are expected to look for measures in the next CBA to increase overall competition, such as a reverse charge of luxury that would effectively serve as the necessary floor for the team’s salaries.
If you’ve been a baseball fan for a while, you know that the parties just don’t trust each other. As Rosenthal and Drellich noted, players fear that Commissioner Rob Manfred would be free to cancel games if conditions (COVID) are considered unsafe, impose double ends and otherwise implement measures that will have an impact on payment. and the service time 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 that will have an impact on the start of the camps can be made. The DH issue could be agreed before the start of the season, as can the extended 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 reporting date and the rules in which the season will be played.
Again, after the work issues that punctuated the baseball landscape in the early 1970s, this may not be such a big surprise.
