Collective Bargaining Agreement

[G-Fafif]

From Slate:



https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/mlb-lockout-rob-manfred-commissioner-baseball-owners-cynical.htmlThe Lords of Baseball Think You're Stupid

The lockout is Manfred and the owners' concoction. It is right there in the word: The league locked out its players when the last Basic Agreement expired. MLB did not have to do that, players were not poised to walk out on strike, and the 2022 season could've gone ahead while the parties worked on a new one. The “defensive lockout” wasn't one. But Manfred, whether he believed himself or not, was playing with fire. He said it would be “disastrous” if the league needed to cancel games, which it had never done in a lockout. And when it happened, on Tuesday, he told reporters that fans were “at the very top of our consideration list.” In yet another open letter, Manfred reiterated that MLB would not lift the lockout, pointing out that players went on strike in a CBA-less 1994 season. “We cannot risk such an outcome again for our fans and our sport,” he wrote. See? He's doing this for you. Manfred is an arsonist who wants you to think he is a firefighter. Even if you take him at his word that the lockout was necessary (you should not), his actions since imposing it have been farcical. Manfred's side did not issue a collective bargaining proposal to the MLB Players Association for 43 whole days after the Commissioner of Baseball said in his first letter that the lockout was meant to “jumpstart” things. The stalling was plain to see as it was happening. Players don't get paid in the offseason. They get paid during the season, and Manfred wanted them up against a wall. So the league waited, then moved inch by inch (and sometimes not at all) on the issues the union cared most about. Many of them centered around pay for young players, who get less than their peers in other sports while representing a higher share of the rosters. Manfred slapped an artificial deadline on the process he engineered, saying the sides needed a deal by Monday to preserve the full regular season. He moved it back to Tuesday, then pulled the trigger on cancellations when the union didn't close the gap. Manfred then told the press that MLB hadn't “used the phrase ‘last, best, and final offer' with the union.” That is a legal term. It is management's right to make a last offer for the players to take or leave. But the MLBPA's lead negotiator was clear with reporters that MLB had used exactly those words. Someone is lying or at least severely stretching the truth. Maybe it's the guy who invented both this entire situation and every conceivable justification for it. Either way, Manfred has his leverage, as a delayed season could cost players a lot of money. The thing he claimed to be committed to avoiding—using the threat of it as the foundation for his lockout—is happening. None of this has been a cunning display of Machiavellian proportions on either his or his bosses' part. They have bumbled in front of both the players and the media. Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort, who chairs the owners' labor committee, reportedly whined to the union across the table about the difficult costs of owning a team. (He then disappeared from negotiations for a bit.) Manfred got in front of microphones and said that buying and owning a team was less profitable than investing in the stock market. Manfred provided no evidence and didn't engage with follow-up questions. But it's a preposterous claim on the valuations, even before considering the regular cash flows ownership can generate. Manfred could only say it because he thought his target audience, the baseball-loving public, would buy it. Such obfuscation is part of the plan. Manfred and the owners did not show up to this self-created crisis without a strategy. The commissioner has spent almost his whole professional life as a management-side labor lawyer, helping companies fight unions. He has been in bureaucratic combat with the MLBPA since the 1980s, first as outside counsel and then as one of the league's top lawyers. That experience is why the owners picked him to succeed Bud Selig in 2014. His career has built toward this moment of hardball with baseball's best players. What does Manfred really like about his job, aside from the good pay?

https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/mlb-lockout-rob-manfred-commissioner-baseball-owners-cynical.htmlhttps://slate.com/culture/2022/03/mlb-lockout-rob-manfred-commissioner-baseball-owners-cynical.html

[kcmets]

Frayed Knot wrote: So forgive me if my knee jerk response when I see something from the four letter network critical of baseball is: Fuck You.

Just adding something to the pot. There's slim pickin' out there, and everyone

has their hands out for a fee to read all about it these days. Disney be damned.



They don't get something done today or by late tomorrow afternoon, my fuck you

will be loud and clear to all of them. I lost patience two weeks ago.

[Frayed Knot]

=kcmets post_id=86430 time=1646315018 user_id=53]
Just adding something to the pot. There's slim pickin' out there, and everyone

has their hands out for a fee to read all about it these days.

[whippoorwill]

Frayed Knot wrote: So forgive me if my knee jerk response when I see something from the four letter network critical of baseball is: Fuck You. Just adding something to the pot. There's slim pickin' out there, and everyone has their hands out for a fee to read all about it these days. Disney be damned.

Amen to that

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm thinking that we'll be lucky if the season starts by June 1. So how is deGrom supposed to make the Hall of Fame?

Also at stake, and in a more direct way: Pete Alonso's service time.



The Mets notably opted not to delay Pete's debut in his rookie year. But if this lockout lasts longer than 15 days, and if the players do not get service time credit for those missed games, then it will have the net effect of delaying his FA eligibility for a full year. Shohei Ohtani and StL's Jack Flaherty are the other players currently in that same boat.



Obviously the MLBPA will fight this but so will the other side.

Just one more topic on which to disagree.

[Edgy MD]

I nominate the teams' major sponsors to step forward. The league, and its teams are in non-compliance with their obligations to sponsors as well as their obligations to their municipally owned stadium leases and, to a large part, probably their training facilities as well.



Let the big-name sponsors — who are frequently banks — field the teams, taking over the leases, honoring the contracts under the terms of the expired CBA, using off-brand names and logos. It would take 10 lawyers less than 24 hours to establish an entity called Big League Baseball or the like, and the pointlessness of the owners will be laid bare.



Not bloody likely, but if it happens, I hope they throw a few dollars my way.

[whippoorwill]

I'm way beyond caring about any major league player in existence, but shutting out youngsters on the 40 man is sad

[Frayed Knot]

The two sides met for a few minutes today in what was described as a "two on two" session. Not sure who the two or the two were.

Needless to say there was no news to come out of it.





In the meantime, it's amazing to read the football news in the papers over the last few days, most specifically about the NYG but the same topics apply to all teams.

That news is all about veterans either being cut [read: having their existing contracts canceled]

- or being threatened with being cut if they don't "renegotiate" those existing contracts [read: take less money]

- or about how teams need to consider whether to sign their QB to a second contract [once the first one with the mandated rookie minimums runs out] and if by doing

so how it would affect how much [read: how little] they'd then have to sign other players because how much they give one player by definition reduces what they can

then pay to the collective others.



And the unmentioned, but often inferred, part of these stories is how much those who cover and follow the sport think these rules are what make the game great.

[bmfc1]

https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1499497290972684291

[bLOCKQUOTE]Four Major League Baseball owners — Bob Castellini of the Reds, Chris Ilitch of the Tigers, Ken Kendrick of the Diamondbacks and Arte Moreno of the Angels — objected to raising the competitive balance tax to the levels the league ultimately proposed most recently, three people briefed on an owner-wide call held this week told The Athletic. MLB moved forward with the proposal anyway, moving its offer on the first threshold to $220 million — up $10 million from where it was in 2021, and $6 million from its previous offer, but still far below the players' ask of $238 million.

...

In bargaining, owners have used the Mets, and their relatively new owner Steve Cohen, and the Dodgers as examples of teams they're worried about outspending the competition, sources said.

https://theathletic.com/3162810/2022/03/04/sources-angels-diamondbacks-reds-and-tigers-owners-opposed-mlb-luxury-tax-increase/https://theathletic.com/3162810/2022/03/04/sources-angels-diamondbacks-reds-and-tigers-owners-opposed-mlb-luxury-tax-increase/

[/bLOCKQUOTE]

Moreno doesn't like his neighboring LAD spending so much, even though he pays Trout and Rendon a lot of money. He also spent more for Syndergaard than Cohen did.

The Tigers outbid the Mets for Javy Baez. Yet, this is largely about Cohen.

[Frayed Knot]

Is unanimity needed for approval ownership?

If that's the case then we're never restarting.

[bmfc1]

23 of 30 is needed to ratify a deal so 8 can block a deal.

[kcmets]

US News/AP:

https://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2022-03-04/mlb-players-start-1m-fund-for-workers-impacted-by-lockout?context=ampMLB Players Start $1M Fund for Workers Impacted by Lockout

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I wrote up a MLB lockout angle on its effect on advetisers for work.



It's paywalled but if you don;t subscribe there's some good stuff in there.



--Advertisers spend about $1 billion on baseball each year--Budweiser alone spends $100 million.



--a pretty well connected guy told me he still anticipates a quick resolution in part because that's too much to pass up and it'll get dispersed elsewhere soon if not



--Scherzer is forfeiting $233,000 every day



https://adage.com/article/marketing-news-strategy/mlb-lockout-leaves-brands-stranded-its-embarrassing/2403481https://adage.com/article/marketing-news-strategy/mlb-lockout-leaves-brands-stranded-its-embarrassing/2403481

[kcmets]

So I'm guessing nothing good happened today? Again?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Word got out that the players are willing to go back to the owners stupid 14 team playoff as leverage to get more in the pre-arb pool and luxury-tax fronts

[Edgy MD]

Somebody's gonna have the dubious honor of winning a championship after finishing the season below .500, and it's a-gonna happen soon.



And it very well could be your team.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Somebody's gonna have the dubious honor of winning a championship after finishing the season below .500, and it's a-gonna happen soon..

I'll be rooting for exactly that with all my might.

[bmfc1]

Edgy MD wrote: Somebody's gonna have the dubious honor of winning a championship after finishing the season below .500, and it's a-gonna happen soon.. I'll be rooting for exactly that with all my might.

Unless the Mets have a higher record and are still active in the playoffs, of course.

[bmfc1]

Sigh. I read that the MLBPA is considering putting the 14-team playoff plan back on the schedule. They agreed to 12 but MLB gets more $ ($100 million v. $85 million) for 14 than they do for 12. If the Players are going to agree to this they should get back a lot because it lowers the bar for a team to get into the playoffs so it disincentivizes the teams from signing players to big contracts ("we don't need to sign that big money FA, we'll win 82 games and you never know what will happen").

https://sny.tv/articles/how-a-14-team-mlb-playoff-would-workhttps://sny.tv/articles/how-a-14-team-mlb-playoff-would-work

Edited March 5, 2022 by Guest

[seawolf17]

You have to shorten the season if you're adding playoff teams, right? Or else they'll be playing into December.

[Frayed Knot]

Why stop at 14?



Every argument that can be made for moving from 10 to 12, or 12 to 14, could be made for expanding to 16 or 18 (I'm not even sure where the NBA is at now, at least 20/30 I think).

[Edgy MD]

May your post reach the commissioner's desk.

[whippoorwill]

This is all horse shit

[batmagadanleadoff]

Sigh. I read that the MLBPA is considering putting the 14-team playoff plan back on the schedule. They agreed to 12 but MLB gets more $ ($100 million v. $85 million) for 14 than they do for 12. If the Players are going to agree to this they should get back a lot because it lowers the bar for a team to get into the playoffs so it disincentivizes the teams from signing players to big contracts ("we don't need to sign that big money FA, we'll win 82 games and you never know what will happen"). https://sny.tv/articles/how-a-14-team-mlb-playoff-would-workhttps://sny.tv/articles/how-a-14-team-mlb-playoff-would-work

That's an extra 15 mil. Divided by 30 owners. That's 500K per owner.



All this for not even what a rookie on a minimum MLB salary makes.

[Frayed Knot]

MLBPA to respond to the owners latest proposal (whatever that was) on Sunday.

[Frayed Knot]

Be sure to familiarize yourself with playoff "Ghost Games" because they may be part of a potential settlement near you.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Is that where one of the teams starts a series with an automatic one-win advantage?



Can't see the owners liking that, if the point of the expanded playoffs is to play more games on television.



I don't love the expanded playoffs. But if it gets this thing agreed to, so be it.

[kcmets]

MLBTradeRumors (03/06/2022, 14:20 EDT):

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/details-on-mlbpas-latest-offer-to-league.htmlDetails On MLBPA's Latest Offer To League

[Fman99]

Apparently owners and players are both on board with banning the shift.



HATE IT

[metsmarathon]

god, it's so fucking stupid. hate the shift? be a better hitter.



but whatever, the smart teams will figure it out.



like maybe if i'm thinking of taking my shortstop and putting him in short right-center, maybe my left fielder doesn't have a whole lot to do way over the fuck there, so i'll move my damned outfielders around instead of my infielders. go ahead, i dare you to go oppo into the outfield, instead of through the infield.



but if this stupid thing is the thing in the way of getting fucking baseball back, then, yes, lets ban the shift. shitty hitters can still get hits, batting averages can go back up, and baseball can get played again. for fucks sake, just get a fucking CBA signed, you assholes.