Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) are scheduled to resume talks today in an attempt to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
The MLBPA is reportedly expected to provide a counterproposal to the league five days after MLB’s offer on the final day of negotiations in Jupiter, Florida. Lead negotiators from each side met for the last time Thursday for a 90-minute informal talk that covered a range of topics.
According to an Associated Press report, the MLBPA could be open to a 14-team postseason format on the condition that the highest-scoring team starts the best-of-five series with a “phantom win.” Major League Baseball has already rejected such a concept, making that possibility seem highly unlikely.
“The 14-team format originally proposed by MLB offers significant advantages to division winners and provides incentives to win at each level of the bracket,” MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said. “In an effort to reach a compromise, MLB agreed to a 12-team format following discussion of formats that included a ‘ghost game.’ MLB made it clear that the ‘ghost game’ poses serious problems and is not a viable path.” .”
Under the MLBPA idea, the top-ranked team would be home to every game in the series and would only need two wins in four games to advance. The lower-ranked team would need to win three of four games to advance to the postseason. MLB has said it doesn’t think the “phantom win” concept is well received by either its broadcast partners or league fans.
Under MLB’s proposal for a 14-team postseason, the division winner with the best record in the regular season would get a bye to the Division Series. The other two division winners would have the advantage of picking their opponents and hosting all three possible matches in a best-of-three round.
After the two division winners choose their opponent – the team with the better record between them would get first choice – then the Wild Card team with the better record would play the remaining team, with the highest seed being the host of all three games. All opponent selections would take place in a televised show.
Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the union’s executive subcommittee, addressed the league’s proposed plan earlier this week.
“We felt like the competition could be eroded in that scenario, and we had specific examples from different players speaking out that specifically highlighted that,” Scherzer said Tuesday. “Continuing from those division winners down, we didn’t see the right incentive for those other two division winners.”
The players said earlier this week they could agree to an expanded 12-team postseason format, which MLB included in its proposal, though a 14-team plan could resurface in upcoming negotiations.
Sunday’s meeting will take place in New York City.
