A lot has happened in almost four months since MLB and its owners locked out the MLB Players Association. It’s easy to get mixed up on who proposed what and why. So today we will be breaking that down for you, as well as giving you our proposal for the CBA. So, let’s just get right into it.

What is Being Negotiated?

To start, what do both sides want? Major League Baseball and its respective Players Association quickly conceded two of their goals. The league’s side proposed an arbitration system that was decided via formula and Wins Above Replacement (WAR). Players and many around the game quickly shot this down, because it limits players from potentially growing salaries every year, as well as puts players in a bucket, not differentiating the context behind the numbers. Players wanted to reach free agency earlier, something that the league made quite apparent was going to never happen, so the Players Association dropped the demand.

Owners also wanted to further shrink the minor leagues after already slashing them just a few seasons ago, cutting the maximum number of state-side players to 150, down from the current 180. This was quickly shot down by players. The minor leagues and minor leaguers are so important to the growth of baseball, regardless of whether they make it to the big leagues. Royals GM Dayton Moore mentioned this during the pandemic shutdown in 2020, mentioning how these players often become coaches, scouts, and instructors for the next generation. Owners also proposed a five-time-per-year option on players, to avoid players from being sent up and down at an insane rate, but they withdrew this offer quickly.

From there, it gets messier. Both the league and players claim they want to make the game more competitive, preventing the practice of tanking, or at least minimizing the benefits. To solve this problem, both agreed on implementing a draft lottery (MLB wanting 4 teams to be included in the lottery, the union wanting 7), but how to do that is being debated. The Players Association included penalties for teams who are consistently in this lottery group, and even more so if they were a large market team, in their proposal.

Another major point of contention is the competitive-balance tax (CBT). This has, in theory, been a soft cap for many years, but with many teams refusing to go over it functions as a hard cap. This is because of the penalties associated with going over, most notably a massive tax on any dollars spent over it. Players dislike this for a couple of reasons. The first reason for that is that it gives teams a greater competitive advantage during the regular season. While money is not everything in baseball, having a high payroll team helps get your team to the postseason consistently, where it is anyone’s ballgame. The second reason is it functionally puts a cap on salaries, which sure a minority of these players make millions every year, but they are trying to set themselves and their families up for life, and you cannot fault them for that.

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In 2021, the CBT sat at $210 million. The players’ union proposed raising the CBT to $245 million this season. MLB countered with $214 million, as well as vastly raising the penalties on going over the CBT, essentially making it a harder cap. While the tax will never get to $245 million under this CBA, the players still want to see a jump to allow more teams to compete without going above the CBT, according to Jeff Passan. It essentially forces these teams to spend more because they no longer have an excuse not to spend. Raising it a good portion is also important too, as I’ll discuss later, for minimum salary purposes. Owners argue it furthers the gap between small and large market teams. This argument is laughable. According to Baseball-Reference, every team received an estimated $209 million in 2018. This is on top of 52% of its local money. Sure, it takes money to pay these front-office executives, minor league staff, and stadium staff. But to suggest that the Pittsburgh Pirates only have enough money to trot out a team that will make an estimated $39 million is laughable. Baseball teams make a lot of money. Not being able to afford half-decent free-agent talent is not an excuse that ownership can use frankly.

Another major point of contention that most skip over is service time manipulation. Players are trying to incentivize teams as much as they can to not manipulate players’ service time. We’ve seen this happen to many players over the years. Most publicly with Kris Bryant, Jarred Kelenic, and Logan Gilbert. Players have proposed rewarding teams with draft picks and extra international money if the player was on the opening day roster and had a year where they were in the running to receive rewards. MLB will be hesitant to give up this ground to the players, with that extra year of service time being extremely valuable to clubs. Former Seattle Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather even admitted to keeping Kelenic and Gilbert down in the minors longer than they needed to, just to gain that extra year.

Both sides also agreed upon an increase in the league's minimum salary, but the amount to raise it is still a major point of contention. This is where the CBT and how much it should be raised becomes even more of an issue. The current difference in both sides’ proposals is $135k, with players requesting a starting salary of $775k, and owners countering with $640k. The players’ demands here make sense. Sure, we continue to see skyrocketing contract values for top players, like Max Scherzer and potentially Juan Soto, but the bottom half of players make little compared to the revenues this game sees. The top 100 players make up 52.4 percent of the salaries in the league. Currently, the average career in MLB is only 2.7 years. The average player has such a brief window to make money, and with taxes, union dues, and other fees, players won’t be seeing anywhere near the entire $555k salary that they currently make. Paying the pre-arbitration eligible players is a step in narrowing the gap in pay disparity.

Related Article: Max Scherzer Details MLBPA Wants in Latest Interview

Super Two Status is more of a minor point of contention, but still important. Currently, the top 22 percent of players who have between two and three years of service become arbitration-eligible. Players want it up to 75 percent (down from their original proposal of 80) and MLB wants to keep it as is.

The final big point of contention comes from a newly agreed-upon pre-arbitration player bonus pool. With this pool, players who have yet to become arbitration-eligible that are some of the top performers in the league would receive a bonus. MLB’s current proposal has a pool of $20 million that would go to 30 players, while players proposed $115 million going to 50 players, according to Evan Drellich. This goes back to one of the primary concerns for players, which is compensation for young talent. Throughout negotiations, though, MLB has struggled to make any meaningful concessions on this front, only going up a total of $10 million since their original proposal. With salaries decreasing and the role of veterans diminishing year by year, getting these top young players paid while in their prime is crucial.

In happier news, some big changes have already been agreed upon. For starters, the long-expected universal DH has arrived. This will have a big impact on free agency, widening players like Nelson Cruz’s markets. This will be a positive for the game. It adds another everyday hitter to the lineup, which will improve the number of balls in play as well as reduce the number of strikeouts. Don’t believe me? Well, I did the math, and pitchers hit for an average of .108 while striking out in 44.8 percent of plate appearances. For a game lacking excitement, I think that is a fair tradeoff of losing the double switch.

In draft and free agency news, compensation picks tied to players who received qualifying offers seem to be gone. This will benefit players immensely, with their values no longer diminished by a draft pick being tied to them.  Another big change is expanded playoffs. The format on how the games will be structured, or even the number of teams, is unclear at the moment. But more teams will be in the postseason in 2022.

These are all the major developments we have seen between the two sides so far. When examining the proposals and the differences, it quickly becomes clear why bargaining has taken so long to make any movement. Owners do not want to be forced to spend more money, citing economic losses. Players want more competitive integrity in the sport, as well as having proper compensation for young players. But it’s not as simple as that.

Why Is it Taking so Long?

MLB has dragged its feet every step of the way when making any sort of proposal to the Players Association. After locking out the players, it took them 43 days to propose. Later, they refused to negotiate and asked for a federal mediator. Players could easily play under the expired CBA rules while they negotiate, and no one would have to cancel games. Instead, owners locked out the players, trying to squeeze out every single advantage they can get out of the players while raking in record profits year after year. The players have had enough, and I don’t blame them. This is not a “billionaires versus millionaires” dispute. Just look at players like Johan Ramírez, a reliever for the Seattle Mariners. He’s been on the Major League roster for two seasons now but is still training in public gyms and on dirt fields in the Dominican Republic during the lockout. MLB then set an arbitrary deadline of February 28th while continuing to not budge in any of its proposals.

The Atlanta Braves, the only team who open their books, made $6,000,000 per home game last season. Sure, the Braves are a contending team, have some of the brightest stars in baseball with Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman. Yes, they also recorded the second-highest attendance in 2021, second only to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not every team is going to be nearly as profitable as the Braves. But if you are losing money in this sport, you are doing something incredibly wrong. There is a reason as soon as a team goes up for sale, in any major sport, ownership groups flock together to bid on it. Teams sell and are incredibly profitable. Even a small market team like the Kansas City Royals sold for a billion dollars back in 2019.

Having players make more is a good thing too. Too often we see talented athletes pass over baseball to go on and try to make it in one of the other major sports. Having these players make money that is more in line with the profits and growth that baseball is seeing is only fair. Why should the owners be the ones who get to continue to pocket the change? This isn’t their job, after all, only a side business. Steve Cohen is not the New York Mets owner first, hedge fund manager second.

What Should the CBA Look Like?

So, you are probably asking yourself, “what needs to happen then?” The answer for that is hopefully simple enough.

First, having a lottery draft for the bottom six teams, along with the caveats that MLBPA introduced. These changes will change how tanking works in baseball, and hopefully mostly eliminate it from the game. Of course, teams will still be bad, but forcing teams to at least put in an effort is necessary for the competitive integrity of the game. Three 100-loss seasons in four years should be a thing of the past.

Next, raising the CBT threshold to $235M, raising $2M every year to hit $245M in 2027, while also slightly increasing penalties. This will allow teams to dish out free agent contracts comfortably, while also implementing more of a hard cap, something that owners are strongly for. Best of both worlds.

A slight bump to the number of Super Two players, somewhere around 30 percent, should also be implemented. This allows the young stars in the game to get paid sooner, something I think everyone can agree is a good thing.

Bumping up the league minimum to $700k is also a positive move, even if the yearly progression is on the lower end from previous proposals, like $10-15k. Not much to talk about here, but taking a slightly lower minimum salary to get an increased Super Two status pool is a win in my books.

Finally, an arbitration bonus pool of around $75M is a win for the players as well, getting the young players paid more in their prime, instead of forcing them to wait until their 30s. To get this, players will have to concede somewhat on service time manipulation, having it strongly reward teams that do not manipulate service time. On top of that, the playoff picture may grow to 14, but with expansion right around the corner that should not be too bad in the long run.