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NO DEAL
What the fuck man. Sorry for the profanity but come on. I didn't stay up until 2 a.m. hyping up Bob Nightengale to hear that a deal was on the goal line and now poof, all hope for baseball return is dwindling away. After 9 or 10 straight days plus hours and hours of meetings, a deal was not reached. How did our fearless leader, the commissioner, respond after the news?
Nice! Now supposedly it wasn't even close. The MLBPA unanimously declined the leagues proposal, this resulting in a miss at the deadline. I really thought we were going somewhere. I really did.
The issues at the table that need to be resolved and what's in italics are the current offer at the table.
Competitive Balance Tax - Players want $230M now
No changes to CBT thresholds (220/220/220/224/230)
Pre-Arbitration Bonus Pool - MLBPA wants $115M
A $5M increase on pre-arb bonus pool from $25M to $30M -
Minimum Salary - MLBPA sought a min. of $725K
An increase of minimums from $675K to $700K, moving up $10K/year
The only outlier of the group is the pre-arb pool, but everything else SHOULD be a reasonable negotiation. Sadly baseball is a business, and at the end of the day it comes down to the money. Not every player "drives a Porsche like Scherzer" and owners are "financially hurting for the past five years", even though in 2019, the last season before the pandemic, MLB revenues jumped for a 17th straight year to a record $10.7 billion. It is one big rat race, and it's sickening.
What's next? It's back to the drawing board but with the first two series and opening day postponed, it seems more likely that baseball won't be back in 2022 rather than returning.
Thanks Manfraud. Thank you. America's Past Time is back and better than ever...