Atlanta Braves fans fume their players in limbo while the fight drags on
Fans of the Atlanta Braves like those of the other 29 Major League teams wonder when they’ll have baseball again and what it will look like when it starts.
Atlanta Braves fans and front office staff watched 24 hours of reportedly productive meetings on February 28th go up in smoke on March 1st. Jake wrote last week that the two sides were close to an agreement, but hope surrendered to reality. In the week since the collapse of those talks, reports suggest the negotiations made progress but the solution always appears just out of reach.
Andy Martino reported that a Zoom call of all 30 club owners had four teams say they would veto any raise in the CBT above $220M; at the same time, MLBPA won’t budge below $230M. While this appeared a power move by small-market teams, it turns out that that wasn’t the case.
Friday morning, The Athletics’ seemingly tireless duo of Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal named names (subscription required). The next day reports that as many as 12 teams would vote against a CBT above $230M.
Like every team, the Atlanta Braves need to fill holes on their roster before they take the field to defend the World Series title. Alex Anthopoulos began before the lockout by signing Guillermo Heredia and Manny Pina and, for some reason, extending Orlando Arcia, but significant vacancies remain.
I’ll Take who’s on first for $28M Alex
The Atlanta Braves must fill the vacancy at first base with Freddie Freeman or via trade.
The idea of Adam Duvall as the team’s everyday centerfielder isn’t something to soothe the nerves, and I’ll suggest they need to add a starting pitcher and a left-handed bat; two if they don’t bring Freeman back.
League guidelines mean they can’t discuss anything that involves players on a team’s 40-man roster, and we know, no club will cross that line . . . okay, all of them would if they thought they wouldn’t get caught. However, teams throwing trades at the commissioner as soon as the lockout is lifted would likely face hard questions.
Atlanta Braves title defense starts on . . .?
I’ve heard estimates of a start date ranging from April 15th to May 15th, but the way negotiations have gone so far, even those sound optimistic. The season’s already lost games can’t for logistical reasons, a quick look at the restrictions in the existing CBA, which will in all likelihood carry forward to the next, further unbalance an already screwy schedule.
Related Story. Two series gone. light
We’ve seen the league move towards the union’s numbers, but they also added some things that the union won’t like and may refuse to consider. As much as I believe Rob Manfred was an awful choice for commissioner, and I’d like to hang part of this on his door, it isn’t all his fault.
The owners, not Manfred, say how far they’re willing to go to get an agreement. Manfred’s job is to advise them when he feels the union won’t accept those goals. It’s the owners who kept their position so far from the unions that the MLBPA decided not to make any significant changes.
If you choose to blame Manfred for failing in his advise and convince role, I won’t argue, but the owners hired him, so even that decision points back to them.
Stuck in the middle with you
Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middle with you. Gerry Rafferty
On the other side, the union entered this negotiation asking owners to give up a year of control, raise the minimum wage more than $200K, and push the CBT to the point where it might as well not exist. I’m not suggesting anything they asked for lacks merit, but asking for it all at once gave notice that the fight was well and truly on.
So, here we are, MLBPA members are mad as wet hens that MLB tried to sneak something through; it isn’t going to budge without a significant concession from MLB. It seems both sides subscribe to Arthur Mayer’s philosophy.
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public! Arthur L. Mayer, misquoting H.L. Menken
Same plan different tactics?
I’ve written in the past that Bud Selig intended the 1994 strike to weaken the union. Marc Normandin’s post for Baseball Prospectus (subscription required) supports that view suggests that the 1994 mistake cited by Rob Manfred as the reason for the 2021 lockout wasn’t trusting the union not to strike.
The “mistake” of 1994 wasn’t beginning the season without a CBA in place . . . It was the assumption that the owners could just bully their way to the CBA . . . and that they could either break the union or outright replace them if that failed.
He goes on to remind us that the reason the Atlanta Braves had a World Series to win in 1995 wasn’t a new CBA, but the decision of a now-famous judge to say, play ball.
And then the fight started.
After the league unilaterally implemented a salary cap, then withdrew it and abolished arbitration, The union filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB quickly came down on the players’ side and the case went to federal court.
The case landed on the desk of Sonia Sotomayor, then a federal judge in the New York District. After reviewing the submittals, she told the sides to stop fighting and work things out while teams played. In a 2009 article, the New York Times quoted parts of her ruling.
. . . the harm to the players is the very one the owners’ unfair labor practices sought to achieve, i.e., an alteration of free-agency rights and a skewing of their worth. . . Issuing the injunction before opening day is important to ensure that the symbolic value of that day is not tainted by an unfair labor practice and the N.L.R.B.’s inability to take effective steps against its perpetuation.
The Atlanta Braves won the World Series in 1995 and appeared in it again in 1996, as the PED-fueled battle of cheats for Hank Aaron’s home run crown distracted fans. Few realized that it took two seasons before the two sides agreed on a new CBA in March 1997.
In 1996, the league hired Rob Manfred as an advisor because they needed someone who could spell labor law working for baseball. It’s an unscripted irony that 28-years later the owners haven’t paid attention to their in-house expert.
That’s a wrap
Atlanta Braves players and fans lost their hard-won opportunity to celebrate a World Series title and rebuild for another title run when both sides in this ongoing farce quit talking. Both sides have some level of blame for the current impasse.
It’s now the job of Manfred and Clark to put their well-known, poorly hidden animous in their back pocket and get the players back on the field. Manfred must reign in his militant owners while rebuilding the trust shattered by the last CBA, the 2020 season, and this stupid lockout.
The rules, they are a changin. . .. dark. Next
Clark must put aside the goal of correcting issues that took decades to manifest themselves in one agreement without creating more unintended consequences. I hope cooler heads on both sides prevail, but I’m not holding my breath. Perhaps I’m wrong, as I write this, reports are coming that a deal is near. . . again.