This afternoon, the MLB Players’ Association and team owners will meet for the seventh straight day. The goal? Agree on the terms of a new employment contract.
Will it be easy? No. After all, yesterday the players’ proposal caused the bosses to back down and no noticeable progress was made.
Union negotiations: the meeting of the day went very badly
We don’t know if there will be a meeting tomorrow. Yes, the start of the season is more than ever in danger.
When we notice the way things are progressing, we realize that everyone is far from an agreement.
Evan Drellich meanwhile laid a paper to mention that thinking that the season would start on time was never logical.
The idea that Opening Day ever had a chance was a farce, @EvanDrellich writes.
And with that imaginary goalpost all but run over, the question remains: Which side cracks first?https://t.co/DBAI2WRES3
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) February 27, 2022
Ken Rosenthal, for his part, does not believe that Rob Manfred was convincing in front of his bosses (the owners of the 30 major league baseball teams) in order to make them understand that cutting games was serious.
I’d recommend the paper, especially in light of Rosenthal being trumped by Manfred at MLB Network.
Column: Manfred on course to fulfill his own doomsday prophecy for baseball. https://t.co/R8XfyrnUTE
—Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 27, 2022
But despite everything, not everything is negative and there are still people who think that within 36 hours, an agreement could be signed.
Jon Heyman tweeted that a member of the negotiations believes it might be possible to see a deal happen in time.
Contradictory to all the negativity/ upset surrounding the MLB/players talks, one person involved said he believes the sides are now “within striking distance” and a deal could be done be tomorrow night. Luxury tax remains the sticky issue but a 225/230M threshold should work.
—Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 27, 2022
Obviously, nothing is assured since the stakes are still high.
And besides, we must not forget that this reflects the feeling of a single person. In the eyes of others, this is not the case.
Major distance remains. Players would likely need significant movement on CBT for that to change. Not just $1 million increments as we saw yesterday
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) February 27, 2022
At the level of the luxury tax threshold, there is still a big gap, but an agreement at $225 or $230 million could take place.
Note that the big clubs that will spend a lot will do so, regardless of the threshold set.
Some current notable estimated CBT payrolls for 2022 per @baseballpro
Meals: $265M
LAD: $235M
NYY: $221M
______________
SD: $208M
BOS: $206M
CWS: $194M
HOO: $189M
LAA: $186M
PHI: $179M
STL: $160M
TOR: $159M
ATL: $148M
SF: $132M
HCC: $128M
MIL: $127M
SEA: $100M https://t.co/pdocp9TVAa—Brandon Wile (@Brandon_N_Wile) February 27, 2022
Are the players going to falter so as not to lose too much salary and service time? Will it be the owners? A happy medium? That remains to be seen.
Without wanting to play the pessimist, I do not believe that the season will have 162 games. I hope so, but I’m under no illusions and I’ll believe it when I see it.
