MLB & MLBPA To Meet Again

Major League Baseball and its Players Association plan to meet again last week after a bargaining session led to tiny progress between the sides. It was the first action since the league locked the players out December 2.

In the two-hour meeting, the union offered a proposal in which it ixnayed its request for age-based free agency and significantly cut the amount of revenue sharing it asked the league to funnel away from small-market teams.

Prior to the lockout, MLB asked the union to remove three items from its list of desires: changing the six-year reserve period before free agency, lowering arbitration eligibility to two years, and adjusting revenue sharing. When MLBPA declined, negotiations ceased and the league implemented the lockout—MLB’s first since 1994.

During last week’s showdown, the union rejected three MLB proposals: MLB offered a formula-based salary system for players between two and three years of service time, a draft-pick reward for success by players who started on Opening Day rosters, and a slight tweak to a draft lottery in which all non-playoff teams would be eligible to receive a top-three pick.

Players remained gung-ho on a few stances: raising the minimum salary from $570,500 to $775,000; bumping the competitive balance tax threshold from $210 million to $245 million; and instituting a draft lottery among non-playoff teams for the first eight picks.

Dropping the request for age-based free agency was the catalyst for the meeting. And after requesting smaller-market teams receive $100 million less in revenue sharing in an earlier proposal, the union cut its ask to $30 million.

Monday’s meeting consisted of four people from each side, including MLB’s Dan Halem and the MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer, the lead negotiators, as well as longtime reliever and union leader Andrew Miller and Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort, head of the league’s labor relations committee.

With spring training set to start in mid-February, time is of the essence. Any lockout-related delays can be ameliorated via axing spring training games. However, neither party wants to lose regular season games—and Opening Day is set for March 31.