yahoo
NEW YORK (AP) — When Jake Bauers caught the final out of the Milwaukee Brewers' first World Series title, it may have marked the last Major League Baseball game for quite some time.
Only 148 days remain before the 2027 season is scheduled to begin on March 24, yet owners have introduced a salary cap proposal for the first time since their 1994 plan triggered a 7½-month strike and the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years.
“Obviously, you'd love to see the game be in a good spot and continue to be played,” Milwaukee captain Christian Yelich said Wednesday, hours before his team completed a five-game victory over Tampa Bay. “I think the game's in a great spot right now with a lot of people tuned in, a lot of popularity, a lot of great players out there. It would obviously be a shame if we miss time, but we'll have plenty of time this offseason to talk about it.”
Free Agent Flurry Possible Before Lockout
Baseball's five-year labor contract, agreed to in March 2022 on the 99th day of a management lockout, expires on December 1. MLB is likely to lock out players again as soon as the deal ends, potentially sparking another free-agent spending spree before the deadline. On December 1, 2021, clubs committed $1.4 billion in salaries, including nine-figure deals for Javier Báez, Byron Buxton, Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. This year's free-agent class is led by Tarik Skubal, Freddy Peralta, Michael King, Seiya Suzuki and Randy Arozarena. There were 144 new free agents on Thursday, and several dozen more could become free by Monday.
Players Call Cap Proposal a Non-Starter
Although the sides have been negotiating since May, they remain far apart on the primary economic issues. Management seeks a cap and a floor to reduce payroll disparity and restrict any player to at most 15% of his team's payroll. Players want expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights, nearly double the major league minimum, increased revenue sharing from high-revenue teams to less wealthy clubs, and a tax on teams that fail to meet a certain payroll threshold. During bargaining that led to the 2022 agreement, the sides did not engage in extensive back-and-forth on economic proposals until late February, when the possibility of losing regular-season games loomed. Several deadlines passed before a deal was reached, and Opening Day was pushed back from March 31 to April 7.
“I am not, by nature or sort of intellect, a deadline bargainer,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “I think in recent years it has become more deadline driven, which is not uncommon.”
Other Leagues Have Caps, But Baseball Players Resist
While the NBA has had a cap since 1984-85, the NFL since 1994 and the NHL since 2005-06, baseball players have said they will never agree to such a system. They have been preparing for years for a lockout and a fight over a cap proposal.
“I think everybody knows where we're headed come Dec. 1,” Tampa Bay pitcher Pete Fairbanks, a member of the union's eight-man executive subcommittee, said last April. “We've been through this song and dance before.”
Owners say they are united on their cap plan, and MLB argues it would benefit the majority of players who make close to the minimum. About 40% of players on 40-man rosters at the end of the regular season had less than one year of major league service as of the start of the season. The union counters that the current system of free agency, arbitration and no hard spending limit allows players to realize their economic worth.
Union Leadership Change
Players forced out union head Tony Clark early this year and replaced the former All-Star first baseman with his deputy, Bruce Meyer, the lawyer who led their negotiating team for the last CBA. When the union agreed to the current deal, the executive subcommittee voted against it, but team player representatives voted 26-4 in favor for an overall 26-12 approval. Skubal, Fairbanks, Chris Bassitt and Paul Skenes joined the executive subcommittee in December 2004 along with Jake Cronenworth and Cedric Mullins. Semien is the only holdover from the 2021-22 talks on the subcommittee, which also includes Brent Suter.
“We have made massive, massive strides in just educating players, keeping players together,” Bassitt said. “It's not like the executive board is made up of eight guys and you follow that eight guys. Now it's all 30 teams pulling from the same rope, so to speak, and it's every player under that umbrella.”
_
See AP's full MLB coverage here.
Originally reported by yahoo.