Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reportedly made progress toward an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement that would end the owner-imposed closure after a marathon negotiation session Monday that lasted into the wee hours. MLB originally set a deadline of Monday (February 28) to reach an agreement before regular season games are canceled and Opening Day 2022 is postponed. However, the league’s self-imposed deadline has been pushed back to Tuesday, 5 p.m. ET. According to ESPN’s Jeff BassanTalks between the two sides will continue throughout the day.
The MLB and MLBPA both spent more than 16 hours at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla. on Monday before calling around 2:30 a.m. ET. As much progress was made during the early morning Monday/Tuesday marathon sessions, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic Reports suggest that there has been “clear progress” but that “significant gaps remain in key areas”.
The MLB began negotiations Monday by notifying the MLBPA that it was prepared to miss games for a month and adopting a more ominous tone. According to The Athletic’s Evan Drelish. According to multiple reports, the two sides agreed a few hours later to coordinate an expanded 12-team complement. However, the issue of the competitive balance sheet tax (also known as luxury tax) threshold – and penalties for exceeding that threshold – has been debated.
MLB and MLBPA are still separate
- Competition Balance Sheet TaxBaseball’s “luxury tax” was a sticking point in the talks. Owners like to keep the CBT threshold low and penalties high so that it serves as an effective salary cap. The MLBPA is looking to increase the bottom line to the $230 million range. Per Jon Hyman of the MLB Network. The owners want that number to be closer to $220 million.
- minimum wage: The MLBPA pushed to raise the league’s minimum salary — the lowest among the top four men’s sports in the US in 2021 at $575,500 — to over $700,000 for 2022. MLB’s last bid was $675,000. For every exercise.
- Total rewards for players in front of the referee: Another way the association wants to pay younger players is through a bonus pool for premium players who are not yet eligible to referee (ie have less than three years of service). The most recent MLB tally for the bounty collector was $25 million. for every husband.
It was also reported that more trivial issues such as the limits of defensive transfers were part of the discussions. In all, there were 13 separate face-to-face meetings between the two sides at the spring training facility on Monday. Bottom line, there’s an iota of hope that the season will start as planned on March 31, but there’s still work to be done on Tuesday when the parties meet again.
CBS Sports has provided a closure schedule here, but the short version is that the owners activated the locks when the previous CBA expired on December 1 – exactly three months ago. They weren’t required to do this, but it was called a defensive maneuver. Then the league waited more than six weeks to make its first proposal. The two sides have since engaged in a series of face-to-face negotiations, with some key points of contention including a competitive loan tax; Proceeds Sharing Breakdown of players eligible for Super Two mode in judging; The regular minimum salary.
CBS Sports will provide live updates on Tuesday’s negotiations. You can continue below.
