NEW YORK — Four MLB owners — the Reds’ Bob Castellini, Tigers’ Chris Ilitch, Diamondbacks’ Ken Kendrick, and Angels’ Arte Moreno — objected to the league’s proposal to raise the competitive balance tax, making it clear that getting 23 owners and the union to agree to a deal will be challenging.
The four No votes on MLB’s “best and final” offer were reported by The Athletic and SNY.
Major League Baseball made its intended proposal anyway, offering $220 million, which was an elevation from their previous offers and $10 million higher than it was in 2021, but still well below the players’ ask of $238 million. These four owners now firmly represent the idea that they are not budging on perhaps the greatest issue still holding things up. The players have also shown that they are not too keen on changing their own stances, making the next few weeks feel like they’ll be fruitless.
The competitive balance tax, also known as the luxury tax, is designed to help small market teams who do not have the means to spend with the big boys. In the players’ eyes, raising the tax threshold would incentivize teams spending money on free agents and actually making a concerted effort to win baseball games. And the players are angry at the possibility of the tax line staying relatively flat while teams’ revenues explode. The owners have treated the tax line as a salary cap in recent years, increasing the urgency on the players’ side to raise it. “We’re seeing it act as a salary cap,” Mets pitcher Max Scherzer said. “No other way can be shown, point-blank, plain and simple, than the San Diego Padres having a higher payroll than New York Yankees.”
Of course, several small market teams had no objection to the raised tax, and the four owners who did so were operating out of their personal feelings, according to The Athletic. The same story revealed that part of the league’s proposal included factoring player meal money and food stipends into the luxury tax, meaning MLB wanted to use the money that goes toward feeding its players against the amount of money that teams can spend without being penalized for it. Players were, reportedly, furious at the idea that something as simple as the cost of food could be spun as a reason to spend less money on a competitive product.
After Commissioner Rob Manfred officially canceled regular season games on Tuesday, no other formal proposals have been exchanged.
