(New York) The slim chances that remained of seeing training camps open when scheduled have just vanished, as the new contract offer tabled Saturday by Major League Baseball was described by the players as representing little progress.
Posted at 1:26 p.m.
Updated at 7:32 p.m.
In this 73e lockout day, the dispute officially became the second longest in baseball history. The teams submitted to the union a total of 16 documents comprising 130 pages dealing with various issues and including some new proposals.
The hour-long meeting was only the fifth session of talks on the main economic issues of the negotiation. The first outfit for a weekend.
So far, the two parties remain far from each other, each camped on its positions on the luxury tax, revenue sharing and how to correct the alleged “manipulation” of service time. by the players. The owners insist they oppose any expansion of access to wage arbitration as well as any decrease in revenue sharing.
The players’ association indicated that it would take the time to analyze the documents received before formulating a response.
This is the ninth labor dispute in Major League Baseball, the first since 1995. The lockout was declared on December 2 when the collective agreement expired. While pitchers and receivers were due to report to their team’s training camp on Wednesday, the pitches will remain deserted.
It is expected that the Major Leagues will not publicly confirm any camp postponements until it becomes clear that preseason games scheduled to begin Feb. 26 are unlikely to take place.
The season opener is scheduled for March 31 and players aren’t paid until the start of the regular season. Given that it is necessary to plan 21 to 28 days of training before the start of the season and additional time to report to their team and follow the health protocol related to COVID-19, it is absolutely necessary that an agreement be signed no later than the beginning of March so that the season can start on time.
Three representatives from both sides attended the meeting at the Major League offices as players and owners followed the talks on the Zoom platform.
The owners remained on their position on the salary cap in 2022 and 2023, where they propose an increase to 214 million for these two years. They then suggest a slight annual increase until reaching 222 million in 2026.
Players want a salary cap of 245 million gradually rising to 273 million in 2026.
The league wants to sharply increase the luxury tax penalty rate for teams that exceed the salary cap and maintain non-monetary penalties despite player disagreement.
Several other issues were debated, including player autonomy, minimum wage, compensation for players who do not have access to salary arbitration, as well as the format of the playoffs and the designated hitter rule.
