I first want to thank you for your continued support of the great game of baseball. This past season, we were reminded of how the national pastime can bring us together and restore our hope despite the difficult challenges of a global pandemic. As we began to emerge from one of the darkest periods in our history, our ballparks were filled with fans; the games were filled with excitement; and millions of families felt the joy of watching baseball together.
That is why I am so disappointed about the situation in which our game finds itself today. Despite the league’s best efforts to make a deal with the Players Association, we were unable to extend our 26 year-long history of labor peace and come to an agreement with the MLBPA before the current CBA expired. Therefore, we have been forced to commence a lockout of Major League players, effective at 12:01am ET on December 2.
I want to explain to you how we got here and why we have to take this action today. Simply put, we believe that an offseason lockout is the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season. We hope that the lockout will jumpstart the negotiations and get us to an agreement that will allow the season to start on time. This defensive lockout was necessary because the Players Association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive. It’s simply not a viable option. From the beginning, the MLBPA has been unwilling to move from their starting position, compromise, or collaborate on solutions.
When we began negotiations over a new agreement, the Players Association already had a contract that they wouldn’t trade for any other in sports. Baseball’s players have no salary cap and are not subjected to a maximum length or dollar amount on contracts. In fact, only MLB has guaranteed contracts that run 10 or more years, and in excess of $300 million. We have not proposed anything that would change these fundamentals. While we have heard repeatedly that free agency is “broken” – in the month of November $1.7 billion was committed to free agents, smashing the prior record by nearly 4x. By the end of the offseason, Clubs will have committed more money to players than in any offseason in MLB history.
We worked hard to find compromise while making the system even better for players, by addressing concerns raised by the Players Association. We offered to establish a minimum payroll for all clubs to meet for the first time in baseball history; to allow the majority of players to reach free agency earlier through an age-based system that would eliminate any claims of service time manipulation; and to increase compensation for all young players, including increases in the minimum salary. When negotiations lacked momentum, we tried to create some by offering to accept the universal Designated Hitter, to create a new draft system using a lottery similar to other leagues, and to increase the Competitive Balance Tax threshold that affects only a small number of teams.
We have had challenges before with respect to making labor agreements and have overcome those challenges every single time during my tenure. Regrettably, it appears the Players Association came to the bargaining table with a strategy of confrontation over compromise. They never wavered from collectively the most extreme set of proposals in their history, including significant cuts to the revenue-sharing system, a weakening of the competitive balance tax, and shortening the period of time that players play for their teams. All of these changes would make our game less competitive, not more.
To be clear: this hard but important step does not necessarily mean games will be cancelled. In fact, we are taking this step now because it accelerates the urgency for an agreement with as much runway as possible to avoid doing damage to the 2022 season. Delaying this process further would only put Spring Training, Opening Day, and the rest of the season further at risk – and we cannot allow an expired agreement to again cause an in-season strike and a missed World Series, like we experienced in 1994. We all owe you, our fans, better than that.
Today is a difficult day for baseball, but as I have said all year, there is a path to a fair agreement, and we will find it. I do not doubt the League and the Players share a fundamental appreciation for this game and a commitment to its fans. I remain optimistic that both sides will seize the opportunity to work together to grow, protect, and strengthen the game we love. MLB is ready to work around the clock to meet that goal. I urge the Players Association to join us at the table.
Manfred
Originally Posted by 2112:
The players were assholes during Covid. Plenty of them wanted their full pay for a half a season with empty stadiums and no revenue for the owners. **** them. They’re being petty.
I agree with that much. They made things incredibly difficult in 2020 and they're being stubborn as hell now too (it's hard to comprehend that the existence of an international draft years from now would be any kind of a legitimate sticking point for the MLBPA).
There's a deal to be made here if both sides were actually willing to make one, but that doesn't appear to be the goal of either side at the moment. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KChiefs1:
QO affected 14 players.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Whats your point?
The international draft, from what I understand, would actually have allocated more money to international players than the current signing period. And that's an issue for international players already in MLB because why?
Even with that said, the MLB fucking gave them the option to simply think about the international draft while giving them what they wanted by removing the QO and they still didn't take it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
I agree with that much. They made things incredibly difficult in 2020 and they're being stubborn as hell now too (it's hard to comprehend that the existence of an international draft years from now would be any kind of a legitimate sticking point for the MLBPA).
There's a deal to be made here if both sides were actually willing to make one, but that doesn't appear to be the goal of either side at the moment.
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
The owners have been more than generous.
I don't think the owners have or ever had any intention of playing games in April (and potentially longer). They can afford to be much more generous than this, but are willing to wait the players out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
I don't think the owners have or ever had any intention of playing games in April (and potentially longer). They can afford to be much more generous than this, but are willing to wait the players out.
The owners just offered the MLBPA what they wanted for at least 2 years to get games started on time this season.
They've risen the CBT $20M. They added $40M of pre-arb bonus. They increased the minimum pay by like $200k and added yearly increases.
Those are fucking massive gains and the players said no thanks. But its the owners that dont want games to be played? [Reply]
Originally Posted by jd1020:
The owners just offered the MLBPA what they wanted for at least 2 years to get games started on time this season.
They've risen the CBT $20M. They added $40M of pre-arb bonus. They increased the minimum pay by like $200k and added yearly increases.
Those are ****ing massive gains and the players said no thanks.
The owners can afford to provide a hell of a lot more than any of those offers any time they choose to and the players know it and they will choose to eventually. Just not yet.
Originally Posted by :
But its the owners that dont want games to be played?
If the owners had the firm intention of wanted games to be played in April, they wouldn't have sat on their hands for months in these negotiations, yes. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
The owners can afford to provide a hell of a lot more than any of those offers any time they choose to and the players know it and they will choose to eventually. Just not yet.
If the owners had the firm intention of wanted games to be played in April, they wouldn't have sat on their hands for months in these negotiations, yes.
The owners have been trying to implement a salary floor in baseball for decades. Creating a minimum would go a hell of a lot further to getting players paid than increasing the CBT in which only a handful of teams even flirt with. It's something the MLBPA wont even entertain because it's going to come with a salary cap and we just cant cut the pay of Max Scherzer a few million to get Joe Blow in Pittsburgh a few extra dollars in his pocket. Why would Scott Boras ever want that?
But you keep on beating that drum of bad owners, bad! [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
I don't think the owners have or ever had any intention of playing games in April (and potentially longer). They can afford to be much more generous than this, but are willing to wait the players out.
Because you made up your mind 6 weeks ago, have ignored anything that doesn’t support that conclusion and are mostly just slobbing MLBPA knob at this point.
Your contributions to this thread have been laughably predictable and uniformly ridiculous. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 2112:
The players were assholes during Covid. Plenty of them wanted their full pay for a half a season with empty stadiums and no revenue for the owners. Fuck them. They’re being petty.
Wanna bet KCN blamed the players for that as well. Completely open playing field with nothing happening and the players had every opportunity to show up and make huge gains for the league in the public sphere.
And what they did was the exact same bad faith goal-post shifting bullshit we’ve seen this winter.
The PA has absolutely fucked baseball over the last 24 months. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jd1020:
The owners have been trying to implement a salary floor in baseball for decades. Creating a minimum would go a hell of a lot further to getting players paid than increasing the CBT in which only a handful of teams even flirt with. It's something the MLBPA wont even entertain because it's going to come with a salary cap and we just cant cut the pay of Max Scherzer a few million to get Joe Blow in Pittsburgh a few extra dollars in his pocket. Why would Scott Boras ever want that?
But you keep on beating that drum of bad owners, bad!
Players made an offer late today: They’d spend the season working on a world draft and if it didn’t work out, qualifying offers/free agent comp would be re-installed at year’s end. This was Manfred’s idea Tuesday night but was rejected because it came after MLB’s 6 pm deadline.
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Because you made up your mind 6 weeks ago, have ignored anything that doesn’t support that conclusion and are mostly just slobbing MLBPA knob at this point.
Your contributions to this thread have been laughably predictable and uniformly ridiculous.
I made up my mind 6 weeks ago that MLB had no intention of playing games in April and nothing I've seen so far has deterred me on that point, so you're right about that much.
Both of these sides are very clearly determined to extend this longer. [Reply]
Players made an offer late today: They’d spend the season working on a world draft and if it didn’t work out, qualifying offers/free agent comp would be re-installed at year’s end. This was Manfred’s idea Tuesday night but was rejected because it came after MLB’s 6 pm deadline.
Rejected because it came after MLB's 6pm deadline, you say? I wonder why.
Oh look. The MLBPA came back with an offer thats worse for them than the one they just rejected AFTER the MLB said fuck you and canceled 2 more weeks of baseball... all on the owners. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Wanna bet KCN blamed the players for that as well. Completely open playing field with nothing happening and the players had every opportunity to show up and make huge gains for the league in the public sphere.
And what they did was the exact same bad faith goal-post shifting bullshit we’ve seen this winter.
The PA has absolutely ****ed baseball over the last 24 months.
May want to check my post earlier on that point. I have no love lost for the MLBPA. I do recognize what MLB's intentions with respect to this lockout are, though. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
I don't think the owners have or ever had any intention of playing games in April (and potentially longer). They can afford to be much more generous than this, but are willing to wait the players out.
Nevermind the MASSIVE concessions the owners have made.
Because KCN thinks the owners always wanted to cancel games so that’s clearly correct. [Reply]