Ten weeks after implementing a lockout they said was designed to “jump start” negotiations on a new labor agreement with the players so the 2022 season could start on time, baseball owners and top executives are meeting in Orlando through Thursday to plot their next step in the ongoing standoff.
At the least, that may include formal announcement by commissioner Rob Manfred of the obvious: that spring camps across Florida and Arizona won’t open as scheduled next week.
And, unofficially, frame a deadline of roughly two weeks to make a deal that with an abbreviated spring training could still allow teams to start play for real as planned March 31.
But that may be unrealistic anyway, since the significant amount of work needed to be done in the negotiating room would first require a massive change in the tenor of the talks.
The handful of negotiating sessions thus far has yielded little progress on the core economic issues, while increasing animosity between the sides.
Leaders on both sides have stuck to released statements and leaked unattributed comments, though some players have vented freely.
“Manclown and his boys need to figure it out and stop ruining the game of baseball,” Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman shared on Twitter.
In short, the players are pushing for most of the changes, seeking ways to get young players paid better and entice teams to be more competitive, correcting concessions from previous agreements.
“We want a system where threshold and penalties don’t function as caps, allows younger players to realize more of their market value, makes service time manipulation a thing of the past and eliminate tanking as a winning strategy,” Mets pitcher Max Scherzer tweeted.
Those seem reasonable ideas, but their methods in trying to do so have not gone over well with the owners.
They mostly prefer the status quo, showing little to no interest in union initiatives to reduce revenue sharing payments between teams, lower service time requirements for players to be eligible for arbitration or free agency, or significantly raise payroll limits related to the competitive balance tax.
Where there has been at least some common ground is in increasing minimum pay and creating a bonus pool for younger players, using the draft (a lottery and/or additional picks) to disincentivize teams from tanking, expanding the playoff field and adding the DH in the National League.
Last week, the owners suggested adding federal mediators “to help bridge gaps and facilitate an agreement.” The union quickly said no, that “the clearest path to a fair and timely agreement is to get back to the table.” The owners then said it was “hard to understand why a party that wants to make an agreement would reject mediation.”
Rays reliever Colin Poche tweeted his own take on the owners’ request: “I can’t imagine why a group of billionaires would want to get the Government involved so badly...”
Though players at different stages of their careers may have different opinions of what is worth fighting for, Rays union rep Tyler Glasnow said there is considerable unity for this battle.
“I think guys and the union really are kind of on that same page,” he said. “Everyone’s really coming together on this one. So it’s nice to see.”
Getting consensus from 30 owners, especially with teams on different ends of the revenue spectrum such as the Rays and Yankees, can also be challenging.
Though the lack of progress has been frustrating, to this point neither side has been impacted much financially — and really won’t be until the regular season starts; players don’t get paid for spring training and teams don’t reap much net revenue. (Though there will be collateral damage to businesses in communities that normally host spring training.)
Both sides have indicated they can withstand the financial blow of the regular season being impacted. The union withheld licensing money over prior years to be able to provide players with stipends, and the league and teams typically arrange for lines of credit.
With fans held hostage, the question may become which side, especially after the previous two seasons were impacted financially by the pandemic, can hold out longer. (Of lesser import, it seems, is whether that is the smart way to proceed.)
Or will the threat of the players losing paychecks and owners revenue from regular-season games be enough to spur an agreement in the next two weeks? As usual, it will be the money that matters most.
