New baseball deal does nothing for Pirates
What began with so much promise was reduced to nothing more than a frustration-filled fantasy by theend.
Five more years of economic inequality in baseball. Five more years of too many Pirates fans ignoring the sport until Major League Baseball comes to its senses and institutes a cap-and-floor system.
Analysis
It didn’t happen, and it wasn’t close, with all 30 owners voting in favor of the new collective bargaining agreement that was finalized Thursday, one the MLB Players Association lauded for its historic hikes in the competitive-balance tax threshold ($20 million) and minimum salary($129,500), among other items.
Nothing against that stuff — or the draft-pick incentives for teams promoting top prospects, the bonus pool for productive players not yet eligible for arbitration or new policies on how players interact with sports betting companies — but it does little to benefit the Pirates or other small-market teams.
Actually, it does nothing. What’s more, the MLBPA refused to drop its 2018 grievance against the Pirates, Marlins, A’s and Rays in which it alleges those teams are either hoarding or otherwise not properly spending revenue-sharing funds.
After MLB seemingly popped the topon a key issue by proposing a $100 million floor coupled with a lower luxury-tax threshold in August 2021, the issue was never seriously broached again, with the Pirates and other teams stuck in an unfair fight, the big guys swatting away any notion of a cap and floor like Dikembe Mutombo.
Instead, much of the talk surrounding Thursday’s deal involved the CBT thresholds, which rose from $210 million in 2021 to $230 million this season and will reach $244million by 2026. It’s terrific when considering player salaries have dropped 4% since 2019 (while revenue reached a record $10.7 billion) but largely useless when trying to recreate the parity that exists in othersports.
“The MLBPA historically has wanted a market-based system,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday. “Over multiple negotiations that has been a primary objective of theirs. Markets producemarket results.
“The changes that were made in this agreement moved dramatically in their direction on topics like the CBT threshold. I think you’ll probably see a little different market results as a result of thechanges.”
Sure, plenty of changes are bound to come out of this new agreement. Just none that mattermuch here.
2. While one of my overarching takeaways was certainly the little guy getting screwed — OK, more like ignored — there’s also this: Pirates owner Bob Nutting after this deal finds himself in a really interesting position.
The Pirates MLB payroll absolutely should be bigger than it is. We’ve also heard plenty from president Travis Williams and general manager Ben Cherington that they’ve been promised the resources necessary to win.
That simply has to involve spending more when the closest thing MLB has to a salary cap jumped a record amount. Not only that, what about the streaming deals with Apple or NBC, or the $60-million-plus that Baseball Prospectus reported teams would receive in 2022?
Add it up — and don’t forget the Pirates’ local TV deal with AT&T SportsNet — and it’s completely reasonable to want more spent on major league-caliberplayers, regardless of where the Pirates are at withtheir rebuild.
(I’ve also written that I believe Nutting will grow the payrollthe way the Pirates did out to basically $100 million in 2016, and I’m not backing away from that. Just saying the stakes are a little higher now.)
3. Have also spent a lot of time thinking about Nutting’s role in this relative to my oneon-one sit-down with him last spring, when I asked what he thought about a cap-and-floor system and his role as an advocate for other small-market owners.
Nutting said he supported the“narrowest possible band” with a cap and floor, provided MLB’s revenue-sharing system was revamped as well. The latter part of that didn’t happen, obviously, with MLB refusing to make any substantive changes.
Did Nutting advocate behind closed doors, then refuse to be that one dissenting vote, or did he legitimately like this CBA? If so, what benefits does hesee that most others do not? Is it better to vote yes then back-channel?Maybe.
It will be interesting to hear from Nutting (hopefully later this spring) on the topic and what he sees in the new agreement. Because I know I’m not the only one having a tough time seeing how this benefits the Pirates or otherwise addressesthe financial/competitive imbalance that exists in baseball.
4. Stepping away from money for a second, the new CBAalso stinks for the Pirates as it pertains to the draft lottery — though no fan should have to seriously consider their team being lotterybound offseason.
Not only are the Pirates’ chances of landing a top-pier pick lessened, but the new CBAincludes a mechanism to keep teams from repeatedly drafting in lottery range (bottomsix).
Again, not anything cataclysmic. Shouldn’t be, anyway. But not great for a team that needs to build through thedraft.
5. The Pirates could wind up having a complicated relationship with the designated hitter, which is coming to the National League as part of the newagreement.
On one hand, it could help Yoshi Tsutsugo stay in the lineup while giving someone who’s better defensively a chance to play first. At the same time, the Pirates don’t really have anyone used to doing that job, which became an issue the past two years with Josh Bell and Colin Moran each experiencing an offensive downturn when they didn’tplay the field.
One upshot could be that it’s a way to get Oneil Cruz’s batin the lineup while protecting him defensively. Much of this should shake out at spring training, but fans will no doubt be clamoring for Cruz, whose immense power could be one of the few positive things at PNC Park this summer.
6. How poorly MLB and the players union navigated a return-to-play in 2020, plus the obvious dislike and distrust that permeated these negotiations, exposed what has been a known problem around the sport — an increasingly tenuous relationship between Manfredand the MLBPA.
As difficult as that might have made these talks, it was encouraging to hear the conciliatory tone struck by Manfred in his post-deal comments, where he both praised the union and said it was his goal to make that relationship better.
“I’ve never been surprised at the solidarity of the MLBPA,” Manfred said. “It may be one of the best unions inAmerica.
“I do believe — I hope — that the players will see the effort we made to address their concerns in this agreement as an olive branch in terms of building a better relationship.”
7. Was chatting with a minor league coach recently about potential rule changes, and he emphasized one more than any other — the pitch clock.I couldn’t agree more.
I don’t have a terribly controversial opinion on shifts; I seewhy some want them gone and others are more freerange. Whatever. A much bigger deal to me is a pitch clock and shortening games. Too. Much. Time. Between. Pitches.
8. It’s tough to figure out which teams, if any, an international draft would favor. Certainly ones with a sturdy presence in the Dominican Republicand Venezuela.
I do think an international draft gets done, because of how corrupt the current system can be — with 12-year -olds being forced to take steroidsand shady business dealings all around. MLB and the players union would also be smart to listen to influential Latin players like David Ortiz on how to approach this the rightway.
The pipeline of talent out of Puerto Rico was never the sameafter its 1989 inclusion in the Rule 4 draft. That could happen here, too, which is why all parties involved must tread carefully. Dominican and Venezuelan players are importantto the game.
9. Was all of this fuss really necessary?
Looking back on negotiations, which took 43 days to get going, gained steam during those Jupiter, Fla., talks, then were all kinds of wild the past week in New York, I certainly wish this would have beendone a different way.
Stop leaking stuff and allowing negotiations to play out live over Twitter. Don’t wait 40-plus days. Get in a room, figure it out and let us knowwhen you’re done.
But I found it interesting when Manfred was asked if the owners locking out the players — essentially preventingthem from striking as they did in 1994-95 — had its intendedeffect.
“I do believe the lockout helped move the process along,” Manfred said. “If we had just slid into the season, started the season without the lockout, I don’t think we’d havean agreement today.”
Oddly, I find myself agreeingwith Manfred here.
10. Small thing when compared to the billion-dollar industry that is Major League Baseball, but it was encouraging to hear Manfred say mediaaccess would return to preCOVID rules. Assuming it happens, that would make baseballthe first sport to allow reporters back in clubhouses orlocker rooms.
Tough for those on the outside to realize, but it really does help with storytelling, context, accurate reporting andgetting the feel of a team.