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Jeff PassanESPN
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Author of The Hand: Inside the Billion Dollar Secret of Sports’ Most Valuable Commodity.
Major League Baseball plans to cancel another week of regular season games if it can’t agree on a new collective bargaining agreement with the MLB Players Association by Tuesday night, adding another level of pressure to already tense negotiations as the league lockout draws to a close. Day 100, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
The urgent need for a labor deal intensified on Monday as the league suggested Tuesday was the deadline for a 162-game season with players due full pay and full time. Even after MLB canceled the first week of the season, the union held firm that 162 pay and service games were central to any deal made, and they threatened to delay the extended playoffs without them.
While optimism about Tuesday’s scheduled face-to-face meeting was cautious, both sides acknowledge that difficult labor negotiations could hit a snag if MLB cancels another batch of games, leaving pay and service as another potentially problematic split.
In a proposal made on Monday, the league narrowed the gap on the competitive balance tax, a major issue dividing the sides, leading to the cancellation of league games last Tuesday. Sources said the MLB proposal raised the first CBT threshold from $220 million to $228 million, still less than the $238 million request the union sent Monday in its written response to the league’s previous proposal. CBT’s rise to $238 million in the fifth year of the potential deal remains one of the stumbling blocks for players whose offer is aiming for a first cap of $263 million in 2026, the sources said.
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MLB’s linking Tuesday to full pay and service, first reported by The Athletic, adds welcome stress to negotiations. While the terms of any collective bargaining agreement could be negotiated, the threat of exclusion of full pay and service from future offers, as well as the potential objection to expanding the playoffs from 10 to 12 or 14 teams, add seriousness to Tuesday’s talks. If a deal isn’t struck on Tuesday, the complexities involved in achieving it in the future could become even more difficult.
At the same time, ahead of the league’s latest deadline on February 28, which was pushed back to March 1, it was suggested that the cancellation of games means they are not being made up and made up for in lost wages and maintenance. MLB softened that stance, saying on Monday that if a deal is struck on Tuesday, players could be in spring training camp by Friday, and lost games could be played over the weekend and with doubleheaders.
The seriousness of the discussions was reflected by the confidentiality of Monday’s talks and the desire on both sides to prevent the proposals from being leaked, the sources said. With all the progress made in recent weeks on proposals such as a minimum wage, an extended playoff and a draft lottery, there is enough division to dampen enthusiasm for Tuesday’s deal, the sources said.
Given the CBT, the size of the bonus pool, and the league’s desire to have a 45-day window to make field changes, the ability to close the gaps in one day may be too much to trade. In addition, any agreement between MLB and MLBPA is subject to ratification by the owners – who need 23 of the 30 teams to sign the deal – and the players.
Tensions set the stage for talks that began nearly a year ago, with little progress being made before the league banned players on December 2. The optimism emanating from the nine-day negotiating session at the end of February was short-lived. as the players turned down a league offer that kept CBT at $220 million for the first three seasons of the deal.
Later that day, commissioner Rob Manfred canceled the first week of the season after having already played spring practice games. A second week – and possibly many more – could be in jeopardy with no deal on Tuesday, though the slow dance towards a compromise that brings baseball back leaves a glimmer of hope for what has been a lost spring so far.