Negotiations over the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the accord that governs the working relationship between players and clubs in Major League Baseball, intensified as the union made an opening suite of proposals to the league on Wednesday.
MLBPA Statement
"Today, the MLBPA presented a comprehensive set of economic proposals designed to advance the rights and benefits of players at all levels," interim executive director Bruce Meyer said in a statement released by the union. "Our goal is to preserve and improve baseball's market system, rewarding competition on and off the field."
The players' proposals provide increased revenue sharing initially guaranteeing every small market club a minimum of $240 million in revenue every season. This enhanced revenue sharing includes added protections to ensure clubs prioritize winning over profiteering.
Key MLBPA Proposals
The MLBPA most notably proposed the following to the owners:
- A "competitive integrity tax" levied against teams that don't spend a minimum amount on player payroll.
- An increase of the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1.5 million.
- An increase of the bottom Competitive Balance Tax (luxury tax) threshold from $244 million to $300 million.
Other Player-Side Proposals
Some other player-side proposals include:
- Increased sharing of local-broadcast revenues among teams but less sharing of stadium game-day revenues (the latter to incentivize on-field success).
- Tens of millions in extra revenue sharing to go to low-revenue teams that make the postseason or have a winning record.
- Free agency after five or more years, rather than six, for players who are at least 30 years of age at the time.
- Expanded draft lottery.
- Penalties for teams that neglect to spend revenue-sharing payments on team payroll.
- Draft picks and other incentives for low-revenue clubs active in free agency.
- Elimination of the qualifying offer for outgoing free agents.
- Increased compensation for lower-revenue teams losing players to free agency.
What's Next
As is common in such negotiations, opening bids are effectively best-case scenarios for the side making the offer and, in reality, serve as a foundation for further negotiation. The ownership side will refuse these proposals in short order. According to ESPN, the owners are expected to counteroffer with their initial proposal on Thursday.
Competitive Balance Context
As for the specifics, the lack of spending by many small-market teams is a leading issue in MLB. Those teams uniformly receive significant revenue-sharing income — enough to cover payroll — but still don't invest in the on-field product at adequate levels.
The proposed competitive integrity tax addresses that, and the increase in the minimum salary would also necessarily have the corollary effect of increasing each team's bottom payroll baseline. Philosophically, the MLBPA can argue for a tax "floor" since a tax "ceiling" in the form of the Competitive Balance Tax on payrolls already exists.
Additionally, the opening proposal calls for direct penalties against teams that don't spend revenue-sharing monies on payroll.
MLB Response
"We appreciate the union making a set of proposals and we look forward to continuing the bargaining process and working towards solving the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us needs to be addressed," MLB spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. "We understand their proposals are designed to benefit players. Unfortunately, they do not address and in fact exacerbate the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us we must address."