The owners submitted another MLB CBA proposal on Saturday and it continued the trend of moving the needle at a snail’s pace.
We all knew a deal for a new MLB CBA wasn’t going to happen on Saturday. But after Rob Manfred’s press conference on Thursday, there was optimism that their latest MLB CBA proposal would get us a lot closer.
In any negotiation, there will be a back-and-forth until either one side draws a line in the sand or the two sides meet in the middle.
If we’re looking on the bright side, neither side has drawn a line in the sand yet and are making progress towards meeting in the middle; however, they’re doing so at an extremely slow pace.
The meeting has ended. Union officials are underwhelmed. MLB made a large proposal (compiling some previous ones) on economics & otherwise. Pre-arb bonus pool went up $5 million, to $15m. Slight increases to CBT thresholds, no changes to CBT tax rates. Players will fully review.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 12, 2022
Getting into the specifics from the owner’s proposal on Saturday, they only increased the bonus pool money for pre-arb players from $10 to $15 million while the players are still at $100 million.
The owners agreed to raise the minimum salary to $630 million, while the player’s last proposal was at $775,000.
They did offer another proposal for a set tiered salary.
And the other big issue is the luxury tax threshold, which the owners offered to raise to $214M, $214M, $216M, $218M, and $222M over the next five years. The player’s last proposal wanted the CBT at $245M.
There are other items in the proposal, but those are the big three and while each side keeps giving an inch, at this rate it will be August before they come to an agreement.
At some point one side is going to need to move the needle with a proposal if a deal is going to get done — and it’s usually the players who have to give in as they have the most to lose.
MLB CBA — Owner’s Provide Soft Deadline
One of the more surprising things from the owners on Saturday is they included a calendar with a soft deadline to get a deal done to avoid the regular-season being delayed.
MLB today presented the MLBPA with a calendar: i.e., to start regular season on time, a deal is needed by X day. Not known what specific days/deadlines MLB suggested. Unknown yet if MLBPA agrees with the calendar as MLB sees it. Union has to review it all. TBD.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 12, 2022
It will be interesting to see what that date is, but you can kind of figure that out from Manfred’s comments on Thursday when he said he wants a four-week Spring Training and at least a week to get ready for Spring Training.
That means a deal has to be struck five weeks before Opening Day — we’re six-and-a-half weeks away from Opening Day…
For me, a deal has to be completed by February 24. Don’t forget, there are still a lot of free agents that need to find a home.
The clock is ticking and both sides seem intent on dragging this out. If we don’t see some real movement in the next week or so, Opening Day will be in jeopardy.