The millions of dollars that Jonathan Loáisiga would lose with the strike in the Major Leagues

En route to his first year of umpiring, Jonathan Loáisiga is going to get a significant raise to his salary as a major league pitcher. After a year in which he shone among the best relievers in baseball, Loáisiga could go from the $ 595,800 he earned in 2021 to $ 1,750,000, according to the projections of the site specializing in the matter, Spotrac.

However, that could be left up in the air if an imminent strike materializes by 2022, due to the lack of a new labor agreement between Major League Baseball and the Baseball Players Union, which replaces the current agreement that will come to an end on 1 December at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time in the United States, which is two hours ahead of the single time.

According to Ronald Blum of the AP agency, the negotiations have been underway since last spring and the two parties consider that the other of them has not put forward a proposal that favors a new agreement, so it is estimated that from December 2 could kick off the ninth major league work stoppage and the first in the past 26 years.

The last strike in the majors began on August 11, 1994. The players decided not to continue playing in rejection of the owners’ intentions to establish a salary cap and rethink the free agency system. It was estimated that it could be negotiated and after a month to resume the season and play the playoffs, but on September 14 the MLB announced the cancellation of the campaign.

The intervention of the Government of President Bill Clinton was necessary and in the process the role of Puerto Rican Sonia Sotomayor, then judge of the Southern District Court of New York, was decisive, who issued a resolution against the owners, who appealed seeking the nullity of the ruling, but the Second District Court of Appeals upheld Sotomayor’s order.

It affected Dennis Martínez

That 1994 strike, which lasted 232 days and canceled the World Series for the first time in 90 years, was the second in his career for Dennis Martinez, who by then represented the Cleveland Indians players in the players’ union. Earlier in 1981, Martinez was also affected by a strike that could have deprived him of a 20-win campaign.

The 1981 strike was not as extensive as the 1994 strike. It lasted from June 12 to July 31 and was due to the players ‘rejection of the owners’ request, who wanted to be compensated for the loss of free agents. What was achieved in the end was that the teams that lost the free agent were given a compensatory quota to choose in the draft and 49 days later, the work stoppage ended.

That year, Dennis was in the middle of a great season with the Orioles and finished among the top winners in the American League at 14-5 and 3.32. They also won 14 victories Jack Morris (14-7 and 3.05) of the Tigers, Steve McCatty (14-7 and 2.33) of the Athletics and Pete Vuckovich (14-4 and 3.55) of Milwaukee. Even the top winner in the National League was Tom Seaver (14-2, 2.54) of the Reds.

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Martinez finished fifth in voting for the Young Circuit’s Cy Young Award, won by the Brewers’ Rollie Fingers at 6-3 and 1.04, plus 28 saves. The Nicaraguan was deprived of at least nine starts during the strike, which could have allowed him to reach 20 wins. However, the Grenadian has always expressed himself with pride in having participated in these protests.

In the 1994 season, Martínez was 11-6 and 3.52 with Cleveland when the strike occurred and that year he missed at least ten starts, which obviously had an impact that year and also in his career, which in the end was 245 triumphs, a figure that remained a record for Latino pitchers for 20 years, until he was surpassed by Bartolo Colón in the 2018 campaign.

According to Bloom, the uncertainty about what may happen to the 2022 season will likely cause teams that generally spend a lot of money to postpone their negotiations with top players. Free agents begin trading on the sixth day after the World Series, however this time around, there may be a lot of caution about it.

Among the most prominent names seeking strong salaries through free agency are Carlos Correa of ​​the Astros, Corey Seager of the Dodgers, Freddie Freeman of the Braves, Max Scherzer of the Dodgers, Trevor Story of the Rockies, Marcus Semien of the Los Angeles. Blue Jays, Kris Bryant of the Giants, Anthony Rizzo of the Yankees and Kevin Gausman of San Francisco. So there is a lot of money there.

However, we will have to wait what happens, but the possibilities of a new agreement before December 1, have dissipated, while the cancellation of spring training is expected, unless there is an intervention from beyond baseball and forces the parties to seek an agreement so that Major League Baseball is in its rightful place: the field of play.

A similar situation was experienced in the 1989-90 season, when the lack of progress in the negotiations, as now, made another strike imminent. The agreement expired on December 31, 1989 and the owners announced on January 9, 1990 that the strike would begin on February 15. However, negotiations accelerated and an agreement was reached on March 1, while the campaign began on April 9.

The teams now want salary arbitration eliminated and players allowed to be free agents at the end of a season after serving 29 1/2 years, instead of accumulating six seasons of service, a criterion that has been in effect since 1976. They also want a lower luxury tax cap and minimal payroll spending, something players have resisted for decades.

In the same way, the players reject the decrease that the average salary has suffered in the Major Leagues. It went from 4,097,122 million dollars in 2017 to 3,881,021 million dollars in 2020. And according to the payrolls of the opening day of the 2021 season, it is estimated that the reduction will reach 3.7 million after the current campaign. In such a way that a new strike seems a matter of time.