Parties meet to talk again
Players, owners have face-to-face session to discuss latest proposal
Locked-out Major League Baseball players withdrew their proposal for more liberalized free agency and lowered their proposed decrease in revenue sharing Monday.
Players had previously asked that players be allowed to become free agents after five years of service with some age provisions rather than the current six.
The union had asked that the revenue-sharing transfer amount be cut from $100 million annually to about $30 million.
A person familiar with the negotiations described the session to the AP on condition of anonymity because no public comments were immediately made.
Negotiators for each side met in person for the first time since Dec. 1, the day before the start of the sport’s first work stoppage since 1995.
Veteran reliever Andrew Miller was the only player to attend the two-hour bargaining session.
Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort, the chairman of baseball’s labor policy committee, was part of a four-man delegation from Major League Baseball, arriving at the union office shortly before 1 p.m. He was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem, executive vice president Morgan Sword and senior vice president Patrick Houlihan.
The sides planned to meet again Tuesday, though it was not certain whether Miller and Monfort would attend.
The counteroffer by the players’ association was delivered 11 days after clubs gave the union a proposal when the snail-paced negotiations resumed following a 42-day break.
There is dwindling time to reach an agreement in time for spring training to start as scheduled on Feb. 16.
The scheduled March 31 opening day is also increasingly threatened, given the need for players to report, go through COVID-19 protocols and have at least three weeks of workouts that include a minimal number of exhibition games.
Players don’t receive paychecks until the regular season, and owners get only a small percentage of their revenue during the offseason. Those factors create negotiations that are a game of chicken until mid-to-late February, when significant economic losses become
more imminent.
Baseball’s ninth work stoppage started Dec. 2, following the expiration of a five-year labor contract.
Unhappy with a 4 percent drop in payrolls to 2015 levels, players have asked for significant change that includes more salary arbitration eligibility. Management says it will not consider changes to free agency, salary arbitration or revenue sharing but made the latest offer in an attempt to propel talks.
Six seasons of major league service have been required for free agency since 1976. Salary arbitration eligibility since 2013 has been three seasons plus the top 22 percent by service time of players with at least two years but less than three years.
MLB has proposed replacing the “super two” arbitration group with additional spending for the entire two-plus class based on performance. Players have proposed expanding eligibility to all players with at least two seasons.
Players also want to reduce revenue sharing.