Major League Baseball has extended its deadline with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) until Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. ET for the two sides to come to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
On Monday night — which MLB had said was the deadline to reach an agreement before regular season games begin to be canceled — the two sides met for nearly 16 hours and did make some progress, according to MLB.com. They will meet again at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday in hopes of coming to a deal that would see Spring Training begin this week and for the regular season to begin as scheduled on March 31.
“We’re working at it,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday night.
MLB increased their offer for players’ minimum salaries to $675,000, the bonus pool to $25 million, and the competitive-balance threshold to $220 million, according to ESPN.
Per ESPN, MLB offered a minimum salary of $700,000 and a bonus pool of $40 million if the players accepted the expansion of the playoffs to 14 teams, but the MLBPA asked for a 12-team playoff instead.
Last week, the MLBPA asked for an increase in players’ minimum salaries, with a 2022 proposed salary of $775,000. The proposal also included a $30,000 increase per season over the next four years. MLB countered with an offer of a $640,000 minimum salary and a $10,000 per year increase over the next four years.
The league and the players association have not been able to come to terms on the details of a new collective bargaining agreement since December following the expiration of the previous CBA.
On December 1, 2021, the MLB’s collective bargaining agreement expired, resulting in owners locking out the players in order to “jumpstart” negotiations, and the first work stoppage since the 1994-1995 season.
In negotiations for a new CBA, the players and owners have not been able to agree on a few key issues.
For the players, they would like to lower the age and service time of when a player can become a free agent, thus allowing them to sign a large contract earlier in their careers. MLB players would also like to address the practice of teams holding highly-regarded prospects in the Minor Leagues in order to manipulate their service time, as well as organizations “tanking” in order to bottom out and have a minimal payroll.
In early February, the MLBPA rejected MLB’s offer to bring in a federal mediator in order to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer laid out why the MLBPA rejected the request for mediation.
“We don’t need mediation because what we are offering to MLB is fair for both sides: We want a system where threshold and penalties don’t function as caps, allows younger players to realize more of their market value, makes service time manipulation a thing of the past, and eliminate tanking as a winning strategy,” Scherzer posted to Twitter.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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Source: Dailywire
