Major League Baseball (MLB) reacted angrily to the latest offer from the locked-out players when negotiations resumed on Sunday, accusing the union of backing down and showing no signs of a breakthrough to get the derailed season back on track.
The disputing parties spoke for 95 minutes on the 95th day of the lockout, largely reaffirming their positions with each other. Talks broke down Tuesday after nine days of negotiations in Jupiter, Florida, with commissioner Rob Manfred canceling the first two series of the season for each team, a total of 91 games.
If Manfred cancels two additional series through April 13-14, it would eliminate 93 more games and bring the total to 184. That would border on threatening players with lost service time and delayed free agency.
This was the first meeting since Tuesday. Manfred was at the MLB offices on Sunday but did not attend the trading session, intended to kick off the first season delayed by labor disputes since 1995.
The union followed the four-day recess by putting many of its proposals in writing.
“We were hoping to see a move in our direction to give us additional flexibility and close a deal quickly,” MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said. “The players’ association chose to come back to us with a proposal that was worse than the one from Monday night and was not designed to move the process forward. On some issues, they even backed off. In short, we are stuck. We’ll try to figure out how to respond, but nothing in this proposal makes it easy.”
In trying to resolve baseball’s second-longest work stoppage, the sides stayed far apart on the luxury tax, minimum wages and the proposed bonus pool for eligible players before arbitration. The union lowered its starting point for the bonus fund by $5 million to $80 million, but left its proposals for the luxury tax and minimum wage unchanged.
