While MLB CBA negotiations continue to go nowhere, a deadline of February 28 has now been set for a deal to be in place without delaying the regular season.
On Thursday it was the player’s turn to present a proposal that does nothing to move along these MLB CBA negotiations.
We really didn’t get many details about the player’s proposal. The only significant proposal was actually a step back in terms of the bonus pool money for arbitration players.
The MLBPA backed off it’s request for arbitration for all players with 2+ years of service today, requesting instead 80% of players go into the system. Additionally, the union requested an increase in its pre-arb bonus pool ask from $100 million to $115 million.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 17, 2022
While the players backed off the percentage of players they’re requesting to become Super 2, they instead asked to set the bonus pool to $115 million — up $15 million from their last offer and $100 million more than the owner’s proposal.
It was a joke of an offer just like every other proposal in these MLB CBA “negotiations.”
MLB CBA Deadline Set for Feb. 28 to Start Season on Time
While exact plans are not finalized, MLB and the MLB Players Association intend to hold multiple bargaining sessions — perhaps every day — as early as Monday, sources told ESPN. Multiple owners and players expect to fly in for sessions leading up to MLB’s stated Feb. 28 deadline.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 18, 2022
This is probably the most significant news of the day as the owners finally revealed their deadline to get a deal done in order for the season to start on time, and as many speculated, that date is the end of February.
Rob Manfred has stated he wants four weeks of Spring Training, which I think should be the minimum, and he says they’ll need a week to get ready for Spring Training.
You’ll also need a week or two for free agents to sign, but that can obviously be going on while Spring Training gets started.
Most have speculated for a while now that neither side will really start to give in until the threat of missing games comes in. Here we are over two months into the lockout and neither side has really backed down.
We’ll see if that changes with a pretty hard deadline in place — I’m sure if a deal gets done on March 4 they’d find a way to still start the season on time.
And it sounds like negotiations will really pick up next week with Passan reporting the two sides could begin to meet daily to get a deal done. Let’s hope that’s actually the case and a deal can be struck before Feb 28 — I already have tickets and don’t want to go through the refund process.