MLB labour talks all about spin rate
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association appear to be spending more time attempting to win the public relations’ battle than negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.
The two sides held a series of meetings in Dallas this week to hammer out a new deal. When one didn’t materialize by late Wednesday night, commissioner Rob Manfred took the drastic step of announcing a lockout starting, at 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday.
Even describing the talks as “brief” would be an overstatement. One round of negotiations reportedly lasted 30 minutes, another just seven. Neither side gave the impression a compromise will be found any time soon. Apparently, there wasn’t a whole lot to discuss.
The optics are terrible. Neither the owners nor the players will come out of this unscathed if the lockout drags well into the New Year and threatens the start of spring training, or worse, the regular season. But that isn’t going to stop either party from trying to look like the lesser of two evils.
Manfred went on the attack, two minutes after the lockout was implemented, in an open letter to fans and placed all the blame on the players, claiming the MLBPA had been “unwilling to move from their starting position, compromise or collaborate on solutions.”
Addressing concerns that free agency is “broken,” Manfred pointed to the $1.7 billion handed out to free agents in November alone, smashing the previous record four times over. By the end of the offseason, Manfred wrote the league would set a record for overall spending.
“We worked hard to find compromise while making the system even better for players,” Manfred said. “We offered to establish a minimum payroll for all clubs to meet for the first time in baseball history; to allow the majority of players to reach free agency earlier through an age-based system that would eliminate any claims of servicetime manipulation; and to increase compensation for all young players, including increases in the minimum salary.”
Manfred is right about the record spending, but his statement lacks context. While the star players continue to get paid extremely well, it’s the opposite for the lower and midtier guys who make up the bulk of the union. As the rich keep getting richer, the middle class — at least by baseball standards — has been getting squeezed. The average annual salary of players dropped three consecutive years from 2018-20, including by more than 4.2 per cent each of those final two seasons.
Since most ballplayers never accrue enough service time to make it to free agency, it’s a valid concern, and to date the league’s proposals haven’t done enough to rectify the issue.
That’s why the union has been lobbying for arbitration to start after two years’ service, instead of three, and for an increase in the collective bargaining tax threshold. They also proposed free agency to begin after five years, instead of six, which is a non-starter for the owners.
“This shutdown is a drastic measure, regardless of timing,” the MLBPA fired back in a statement approximately 15 minutes after the one Manfred issued. “It is not required by law or for any other reason. It was the owners’ choice, plain and simple, specifically calculated to pressure players into relinquishing rights and benefits.”
That statement lacks context, too. While the owners weren’t obligated to lock out the players, it was a logical step to take because if they didn’t, the union would have been free to strike any time it wanted. That’s what happened in 1994 when the season was stopped in August with the post-season, and the league revenue associated with it, just around the corner.
At this point, public statements from both sides are all spin, and considering the hardships a lot of fans have endured during the pandemic, they’re unlikely to have much of an appetite for the complaints.
If these talks get resolved before spring training, everything will be fine. If they don’t, and the season is put at risk, the damage done from the last strike will look small by comparison. There has never been a worse time for an argument between billionaire owners and million-dollar athletes, yet here we are. Dig in, this one is going to take awhile.