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In what was the first full meeting between the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball since the two sides left Florida last week without a deal, there was minimal progress on actually getting a deal done for the 2022 season.
The two sides met in Manhattan, New York on Sunday at 12 pm ET for about 100 minutes and the players barely moved on their pre-arbitration bonus pool offer and didn’t move at all on their Competitive Balance Tax Threshold and minimum salary offers.
The players’ pre-arbitration offer is now at $80 million, slightly down from $85 million (so there’s still a $50 million gap in the pre-arbitration bonus pool offers). They still want $238 million to be the luxury tax threshold for this coming season, which has already seen two regular season series be canceled.
The players are still holding firm on their ask for 6 draft lottery teams while MLB wants five but that shouldn’t be a big issue when all things are said and done. It’s going to come down to the luxury tax and pre-arbitration bonus pool money numbers.
There was progress for a couple seasons down the road, though, as both sides agreed to implement a pitch clock (likely 14 seconds when runners aren’t on base and 19 seconds when there are runners on base), larger bases, and the restriction of shifts in the 2023 season. As Jesse Rogers reported before the two sides met on Sunday, the minor leagues were successful in trimming the time of games down by 20 minutes in Single-A in 2021.
Dan Halem and Bruce Meyer, representatives from both sides, met one-on-one following the big meeting but it is not yet known when both sides plan to meet again. Below are the relevant tweets from Sunday:
MLBPA proposal per source:
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 6, 2022
• Would grant MLB ability to implement 3 specific on-field changes w/45-day notice, starting w/2023 season: pitch clock, larger bases, shift restriction. MLB also wants robo umps w/45-day, players didn’t offer
• Prearb pool starting at $80m, down $5m
More union proposal today:
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 6, 2022
• No change on CBT or minimums.
• If direct draft pick comp (qualifying offer) goes away, MLBPA now OK w/other CBT-related penalties (sometimes called non-monetary penalties)
• Some revenue sharing changes still on table for PA
• MLBPA is still at 6 picks for amateur draft lottery, MLB Is at 5 (and there’s other disagreements)
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 6, 2022
Dan Halem and Bruce Meyer had a one on one today after the group meeting. TBD when next meeting will be.
MLB’s Glen Caplin cont’d: "On some issues, they even went backwards. Simply put, we are deadlocked. We will try to figure out how to respond, but nothing in this proposal makes it easy.”
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 6, 2022
MLB suggested that the MLBPA had verbally offered something different on prearb pool.
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