In today’s Major League Baseball labor negotiation news: there is no deal, but there is another meeting.
The Monday meeting in Midtown between the league and the players’ union ended with the slight step forward of scheduling another meeting, according to multiple reports. The sides will reconvene on Tuesday, marking the first time in these negotiations that they’ve met two days in a row.
During negotiations on Monday, the players dropped their attempt for an age-based free agency system. This was designed to help players reach free agency and secure payment earlier than they do now. By current league rules, a player becomes a free agent after six years of service time. The players, according to The Athletic, had previously pitched an idea where players could become free agents after five years if they were 30.5 years old. That eventually came down to 29.5 before being rejected.
Another highlight from the negotiating table includes a revised revenue sharing proposal. The players union altered their stance slightly, per reports. Between revenue sharing and free agency, the players are reportedly feeling as though they’ve made two major concessions.
The league is said to have no interest right now in discussing changes to the arbitration system either. Though the league ignored it, all indications show the players not budging in their hopes to reach arbitration after their second year of MLB service.
The rejection came from both sides, as the players turned down most of the owners’ suggestions on Monday. This was the first in-person meeting of the lockout (the only previous one was done virtually) and is said to have lasted about two hours.
It’s unlikely if not impossible that a deal is reached on Tuesday, but the fact that there will be communication at all is a pretty sizable step forward given the snail’s pace at which things had proceeded thus far.
