Monday’s five-hour boardroom session between MLB and the MLB Players Association—at times in the same room, other times in separate quarters—seemed to be all for naught, as the two parties remain far apart on a new collective bargaining agreement.
The meeting—overlooking the Cardinals and Marlins’ spring training field—with leadership from both sides kicked off an imperative week of negotiations, as MLB’s Opening Day is set for March 31.
Spring training has already been delayed, with games postponed until March 5 at the earliest, as the owner-imposed lockout continues.
Sources familiar with the negotiations say huge issues—the competitive equilibrium tax, minimum wages and revenue sharing—were not touched upon Monday.
MLB did up its commitment in a pre-arbitration pool to $20 million—though just a $5 million increase from its last offer—while adding another team to the lottery in its new NBA-style draft proposal.
MLB also withdrew its request of the union to control, and possibly reduce, the number of minor league playing jobs. The league could try to do it unilaterally going forward, but not in 2022 and currently has no plans to do so in 2023 either.
MLB also pulled its offer limiting the number of times a player can be optioned to five. The constant shuttling between leagues is a quality-of-life issue for players, who proposed a max of four options.
The league believes it’s now the union’s turn to offer a proposal regarding the CBT after tweaking its latest offer with modest increases in the final three years of the next CBA.
The sides departed after 6 p.m. ET. Ten players were in attendance for the meeting, such as Max Scherzer, Francisco Lindor, Whit Merrifield and Paul Goldschmidt. Zoom calls with other reps from around the country took part when the sides were separated.
Union chief Tony Clark was there, but commissioner Rob Manfred was not.
