For a few days, we knew that the MLB was going to file, today, an offer to the players in order to try to agree on the terms of a new collective agreement.
And as expected, the offer – MLB’s first since the start of the work stoppage – was ridiculous. We suspected it, but it’s official: the players did not like what they saw.
Obviously, we knew that was going to happen and the momentum towards a signing is not there at all. It will take a little longer.
Why? Because big issues have to be negotiated. And we’re not talking about the universal hitter of choice here, which seems to be taken for granted at this point.
According to Jeff Passan, giving a draft pick to clubs that don’t handle the big prospects’ duty time and forcing a different lottery for the draft are among the ideas being proposed today.
We expect the players to respond shortly, so as not to fall too far behind and avoid losing matches.
Among the files that are going * relatively * well, there is the process of raising the minimum wage. The players want to widen the gap between the rich and the “less fortunate” in MLB and the bosses have made an offer to do so.
We are far from being cut to the lips, but MLB does not seem against the concept.
What really disappointed the players, in fact, was the luxury tax salary level. The MLBPA hasn’t seen bosses make any effort to raise the luxury tax or even for revenue sharing.
And once again, the minimum wage issue is at the heart of the negotiations.
Lowering when a guy becomes a free agent is not in MLB’s immediate plans. The players want to go from six to five years of service in terms of autonomy, but the bosses don’t.
So yes, there is still a long way to go. At least everyone is at the negotiating table.
