2022 CBA negotiations

This is technically true. The lockout was a choice, not mandated. The negotiation of the new CBA could have taken place while operating under the old CBA. The owners chose not to do this because they feared the players might strike during the season, which is what I believe happened in 1994.

MLBPA responds to MLB's earlier statement delaying the start of Spring Training games: https://t.co/s22ZlUx36c

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) February 18, 2022

Still very very bullish on the regular season not losing any games off the 162 slate. Watch what happens here in the next 12 days. Play ball!

All of this was just so, so unnecessary.

Juan Soto turned down a 13-year, $350 million contract from the Washington Nationals…the players need to continue holding out…how can anyone be expected to survive in these inflationary times on a paltry $350 million?

The elite players are always going to get their money. I think this conflict stems from the MLBPA trying to get more money into younger players hands who aren’t in the top tier of talent.

While the CBT is a big issue I think a bigger issue is arbitration. If the owners would agree to players being eligible for arbitration after two years I think this stalemate would be settled immediately.

This whole thing is not really about more money for players (A bigger part of the take for players is what the players say this is all about.) It’s about what the players perceive as fairness. Surely, a starting salary of around $600k plus all the millions upon millions of dollars that are awarded to players in arbitration and in long term contracts is plenty of money for players. The players simply think that the Owners are making more money than they should be allowed to make, and that they are compelled by conscience to do something about it. It really amounts to activism. And this complicates negotiations because you get everyone saying it’s about money when it’s not. If players and owners are are going to argue, they need to know precisely what they are arguing about. In this case it’s about principles, not money. The players have their principles and the owners have theirs. Both sides have to have negotiators who can work through this in order to come up with an amicable settlement.

I commented, maybe a year ago, that they ought to give more money to young players so that they can get a jump on becoming multi-millionaires. I’d like to see every player that gets added to a 40 man roster get a taste of the big money. Give them $400K, or $500K, just for making it to a 40 man roster, and keep paying them until they make it to a 25 man roster, or until they are off of a 40 man roster. The particulars of how that can be made to work can be worked out. Also, the starting salary for a major league player can be increased so they get their millions sooner.

I’d rather a player gets paid millions because they earned it, not because they just made it onto the 40 man roster and such, sometimes a player is added simply to fill out the 40 man, with no chance of playing anytime soon, they shouldn’t get monetarily rewarded for that. To me that sounds like kids getting participation trophies for everything. Not every player is going to become a multi-millionare, I’d guess that most won’t get the big bucks.