With spring training and sidekicks scheduled to begin in just over three weeks still far from signing a new employment contractMajor League Baseball and its players’ union met on Monday and made plans to meet again on Tuesday.
Monday meeting at player union offices in Manhattan – second major negotiation session in only since the lockout started on December 2 — lasted over two hours and included what one MLB official described as an enthusiastic back and forth. The small group included, among others, union officials such as chief negotiator Bruce Meyer and best player representative at Andrew Miller, as well as MLB officials such as Dick Monfort, owner of the Colorado Rockies and chairman of the league’s working committee. and Dan Halem, MLB’s chief negotiator.
During the previous negotiation session on January 13, MLB made an offer to the union during a virtual meeting that it felt addressed some players’ concerns about paying their young talents sooner.
On Monday, the union officially rejected that offer—not believing that some of MLB’s ideas would accomplish what the league claims—and made its own counteroffer. For the first time, the union dropped the offer to allow some players (those with five years of service) access to the free agency by age (30 ½ years and then 29 ½) instead of just length of service, as has been done. for decades. The union also tweaked its previous proposal to reduce revenue sharing between teams.
MLB said Ensuring players reach the free agent roster sooner and changing the money split between teams were areas he didn’t want to touch.
Overall, the union sought a number of improvements with the aim of helping younger players, improving competition between teams, curbing service time manipulation and injecting more spending. But the league believes it has a fair system with no salary caps for players, and sees it as a matter of wealth distribution – star players are disproportionately commanding more than others.
As of Monday, both parties believe they have made final proposals that move in the other’s direction. How much, though, depends on your perspective. There’s more work to be done, but the pace of discussion is increasing—with spring training kickoff time and perhaps the season on time.