Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reportedly made progress toward an agreement for a new collective bargaining agreement that would end the owner-imposed lockout after a marathon negotiating session Monday that lasted until the early morning hours. MLB had originally created a deadline of Monday (Feb. 28) to reach an agreement before canceling regular-season games and postponing 2022 Opening Day. The league’s self-imposed deadline, however, has been pushed back until 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN, and the sides will continue to talk throughout the day.
MLB and the MLBPA spent more than 16 hours at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, on Monday before calling it a night around 2:30 a.m. ET. As far as the progress made during the marathon sessions on Monday/Tuesday early morning, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that there’s “definite progress,” but “large gaps remain in major areas.”
MLB began Monday’s negotiations by informing the MLBPA it is willing to miss a month’s worth of games and took a more threatening tone, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. Multiple reports, several hours later, said the two sides ended up agreeing on a 12-team expanded playoff format. However, the matter of the competitive balance tax (a.k.a. the luxury tax) threshold — and the relating penalties for exceeding said threshold — discussions were ongoing.
Where MLB, MLBPA are still apart
- Competitive Balance Tax: Baseball’s “luxury tax” has been a sticking point in talks. Owners want to keep the CBT threshold low and the penalties high, so it serves as a de-facto salary cap. The MLBPA is looking to increase the threshold to the $230 million range, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Owners want that number closer to $220 million.
- Minimum salary: The MLBPA has been pushing to raise the league’s minimum salary — the lowest of the U.S.’s four major men’s sports in 2021 at $575,500 — to above $700,000 range for 2022. MLB’s latest offer went to $675,000, per Drellich.
- Bonus pool for pre-arbitration players: Another way the union wants to get younger players paid is through a bonus pool for top-preforming players who are not yet eligible for arbitration (meaning they have less than three years of service time). MLB’s latest figure for the bonus pool was $25 million, per Heyman.
More trivial matters such as defensive shifting restrictions were also reportedly part of discussions. In all, there were 13 separate face-to-face meetings between the two sides at the spring training facility on Monday. The bottom line is there’s a shred of hope the season begins as planned on March 31, but there’s still heavy lifting to be done on Tuesday when the parties reconvene.
CBS Sports has provided a timeline of the lockout here, but the short version is that the owners placed the padlocks on when the previous CBA expired on Dec. 1 — exactly three months ago. They were under no obligation to do so, but it was labeled as a defensive maneuver. The league then waited more than six weeks to make its first proposal. The two sides have since had a number of in-person negotiations, with some of the main sticking points including the Competitive Balance Tax; revenue sharing; the breakdown of players who qualify for Super Two status in arbitration; and the league-minimum salary.
CBS Sports is providing live updates of Tuesday’s negotiations. You can follow along below.
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Maybe we’re not as close to a deal as we think?
Here’s another possible indicator that the two sides may not be quite as close to agreeing to a new CBA as recent momentum might suggest:
Also see the Travis Sawchik tweet just below.
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Here’s why owners badly want expanded playoffs
Not surprisingly, it’s a lucrative proposition:
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Here’s one other point of leverage for players
The tendency of small-market teams to pocket revenue sharing dollars instead of reinvesting them in the product (as they’re supposed to) remains a huge problem in MLB. However, given the difficulty of proving such things and the uncertainty of how an arbitrator would rule, the players are wise to treat those pending grievances as a trade chit during these negotiations.
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Arrivals in Jupiter
Representatives from the MLBPA and league are convening once more at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida shortly before 10 a.m. ET.
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Tuesday topics
Evan Drellich of The Athletic highlights some of the topics that could be discussed on Tuesday. The sides have plenty of issues to work through in addition to figuring out CBT, minimum salary and other economic issues.
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Good.. uh.. later in the morning
Hello again, baseball fans. The MLBPA and league representatives will be back at it in Jupiter, Florida later today in an effort to strike a deal after a 16-hour marathon bargaining session on Monday. Monday was the league’s original self-imposed deadline to get a deal without impacting the regular-season schedule, but the sides agreed to meet again Tuesday. The deadline for today is 5 p.m. ET, but there’s no doubt things could go later than that in an effort to iron out details.
MLB, which did not make a proposal for six weeks after locking players out, showed real urgency in negotiations for the first time Monday. MLB and the MLBPA reportedly agreed to certain items like a 12-team expanded postseason on Monday night. However, the sides remain apart on issues like the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT), minimum salary and the size of a bonus pool for top pre-arbitration eligible players, per Jon Heyman.
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Thanks to everyone who stuck around throughout the night/morning for my updates. A quick summary of the most important details is now refreshed up above and we’ll get back after this tomorrow, hopefully with news of a deal being finalized.
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It’s reconvene “tomorrow” time
As can be seen in the Passan and Rosenthal tweets just below, there won’t be a deal before everyone gets more sleep. We’ll see everyone tomorrow!
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They are talking about the shift
According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, discussions on possible restrictions against the defensive shift are ongoing. This doesn’t involve money, so-called “tanking,” playoff structure or anything else major. As such, we can probably use a little common sense here and deduce that discussing something relatively minor possibly means the major stuff is already either settled or close to being settled.
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Here we go, another meeting
Weeeeee!
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I wonder if it’s worth noting that the players are young and the owner side is generally stocked with some older folk. Is stamina an issue at these wee hours?
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Another parking lot migration
Looks like the meeting was about a half hour this time.
And the dance continues …
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Multiple reporters note that Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has left the stadium area. We haven’t heard his name much and it might not really mean anything, but I thought we could use another update as we wait, so there you have it.
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I think this is the 13th?
A bigger contingent from the owner side is heading over to see the players now.
For much of the day it’s been two people heading back and forth. This time it’s four. Take from that what you will.
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The 15th hour
MLB and MLBPA are still talking.
This definitely can’t be a bad thing at this point.
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How much does Joc know?
In the meantime, is Joc just playing around or has he been in contact with people in the negotiating room? Notice the wording here:
“WHEN” this deal is done? Don’t toy with us, Joc.
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Hard telling when this will end
We’d hoped to be able to give you an update at this hour as to whether or not something will happen before you’re released for bed time. But …
OF COURSE they can’t even agree on when to stop for the night, right?
The takeaway is that either the talks will continue tonight or they won’t. Shrug.
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just got way too excited about nailing a tough Wordle, by the way
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