An initial, roughly two-hour session of MLB CBA negotiations took place at the MLB Players Association’s office, with the meeting “scheduled for initial presentations from each side on their view of the sport and its economics,” according to Ronald Blum of the AP. There were no proposals made. Players who attended included Mets 2B Marcus Semien, a member of the union’s eight-man exec subcommittee, along with his teammates, Ps Clay Holmes, David Peterson and Sean Manaea and OF Austin Slater. Several Tigers players, who were in town to play the Mets, also were at the meeting and additional players “joined via video conference.” Holmes said, “It was just kind of initial meetings, first time the sides were getting together and kind of sharing their thoughts on kind of where they thought things were at and what they thought was best for kind of the game moving forward” (AP, 5/12).
AT ODDS: ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan cited sources as saying that during the opening presentations, the sides “outlined their views on the game, noting challenges they see and opportunities to use labor negotiations as a tool to move it forward.” While MLB is “on pace” to generate record revenues and has seen national television ratings soar this year, owners continue to “sing the virtues of a salary cap, a mechanism the MLBPA has resisted for decades.” Sources said that while the tenor of the meeting “was respectful and calm,” the chasm between the sides “remains significant.” MLB sees the payroll gap as “a significant marker of disparity.” The union, however, believes the consistent competitiveness of lower-payroll teams “suggests that intelligent transacting can overcome financial inequality” and that a cap-and-floor system should “not be necessary to encourage lower-revenue stragglers to increase spending” (ESPN.com, 5/12).
CASE STUDY: In L.A., Bill Shaikin wrote the Dodgers “might not be the lone reason” for the CBA dispute, but they “are Exhibit A.” For these negotiations, the owners “have shifted their benchmark for competitive balance from making the playoffs to winning the World Series.” No small-market team has won the World Series since the Royals in 2015, and the Dodgers last year became the first team in 25 years to win back-to-back championships. Shaikin wrote however baseball’s owners and players resolve their differences, the “almost certain lockout” in December is “expected to be followed by a season-threatening stare down: Do the players give in on a salary cap rather than give up their salaries for part or all of the season?” Shaikin: “Or do the owners surrender on the salary cap, well aware that a 2027 lockout could drive away fans on the eve of media rights negotiations in 2028?” After the 1994-95 strike, the average attendance did “not return to prestrike levels until 2006.” Shaikin wrote, “And how long might the unified front [Dodgers owner Mark] Walter and the other 29 owners are putting up now last, once games and the revenues that flow from them are lost?” (L.A. TIMES, 5/12).
WORST CASE SCENARIO: THE ATHLETIC’s Jim Bowden writes there is “no way” the league and the players’ association should allow CBA talks to get to the point of a lockout. The game is in “great shape right now” and an interruption to the normal league schedule “could derail that momentum.” Bowden: “The game has never been in a better place. Small-market teams are winning and signing their young players to long-term contracts, viewership is off-the-charts, teams are making money and superstar players…are making superstar money." Owners and players “need to remove the black cloud of a potential work stoppage,” and with negotiations underway, both sides “need to recognize the great place the game is in.” The two sides should “focus on continuing to improve the rules and find new ways to limit some of the advantages the bigger market teams have.” He adds the players’ association and the owners “need to work together for once in making the game better” and “stop threatening a work stoppage,” as fans do not “want to hear it” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/13).
