Negotiations continue on the CBA

A second consecutive day of negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA, for its acronym in English), produced a new proposal from the union, although with few adjustments.

The two sides are scheduled to meet again on Wednesday in Jupiter, Florida, to continue negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement.

The minimum wage was among the changes in the proposal made by the MLBPA on Tuesday, although the union requested more money than it had asked for in its last offer. Tuesday’s proposal included a $775,000 salary in 2022 for players of his arbitration eligibility, with raises of $30,000 in each of the next four years. The previous MLBPA proposal included the same annual salary, with annual increases of $25,000 from 2023-26.

This is the third consecutive proposal in which the MLBPA has asked for more in at least one area than the previous proposal. In its previous proposal, the union increased the amount of bonus money for players ineligible for salary arbitration from $100 million to $115 million. Before that, the MLBPA had said that in addition to MLB’s plan to combat time service manipulation, it also wanted to include its own plan in the deal.

Among the other changes to the games’ most recent offering was a slight reduction in its proposal for Super 2 eligibility, lowering its previous request of 80% of players in that class of service to 75%. The current system allows the top 22% of players with two to three years of service time to become eligible for arbitration as Super 2 players.

MLB has insisted for months that any changes to the Super 2 system will not move forward with ownership.

The MLBPA also reduced its proposal for a draft lottery from the top eight picks to seven. On Monday, MLB offered a top-four pick lottery system like the one used by the NBA. (The NHL only awards its first two picks through a lottery.)

MLB has set February 28 as the last possible day to reach an agreement that would allow regular season openers to be held on March 31. With that deadline fast approaching, the league once again suggested using a mediator to help with the process, but the MLBPA again rejected the idea.

League officials were crafting a response to what one source characterized as “a bad proposal.”

The league’s most recent minimum wage proposal gives the MLBPA a choice between two systems:

Under the first, players would receive a single minimum salary of $630,000 in 2022, which would be more than double the $27,500 increase players received in the first year of the last CBA. Under this system, the minimum wage would be uncapped, while the 2021 $59,500 raise would be roughly on par with the raise ($63,000) players received over the five years of the entire previous CBA.

The league’s other proposal includes a tiered salary scale that would pay players with less than one year of service at the major league level $615,000; US$650,000 to players with one year or more of service and US$725,000 to players with two years of service or more – the latter representing an increase of US$15,000 compared to the previous proposal. Compared to the current player minimum salary of $570,000, players would receive a 16% raise ($278,500) in their first three years of service under this plan – and that’s not counting pre-arbitration money.

The MLBPA’s proposal on Tuesday included no changes to its previous offers for a $115 pre-arbitration player fund or the $245 million they are proposing for the competitive balance tax (CBT) – a figure in which the union has not budged since November.

MLB has offered a $20 million award that would be awarded to the top 30 players who are not available for salary arbitration, and a CBT of $214 million that would increase to $222 million by 2026. Under the league’s proposal, only teams that go over the $234 million cap would lose a pick in the amateur draft.

Several players participated in Tuesday’s first meeting along with MLBPA negotiators, while Rockies CEO Dick Monfort and Padres Vice President Ron Fowler attended along with MLB officials. Monfort is chairman of the team owners’ labor policy committee, a role previously held by Fowler.

After the parties separated to talk to each other, there was a second meeting, although smaller; deputy commissioner Dan Halem (the league’s chief negotiator) and Monfort represented MLB, while MLBPA chief negotiator Bruce Meyer and Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the executive subcommittee, represented the union.