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News on Ozuna’s deal, from Hummel. #stlcards #cardinals https://t.co/7eTsWVCjo3
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) January 11, 2019
I still do not see how the Cards’ offer to Pham last year was “disrespectful”, unless the Rays are being disrespectful, too. Hmmm, perhaps there is a pattern here…
In other words, Pham will make either $4.07 MM or $4.67 MM for 2018-2019 combined. The #stlcards' reported offer for that same period – which he felt was selling him short – was $4.0 MM. https://t.co/anaM3a3Rb2
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) January 12, 2019
Ben Fred’s column today suggests players fight for these changes:
Remove draft pick penalties for competitive balance tax overages
Faster free agency
Spending floor
Stop draft benefit for tanking teams
DH to the NLWhile several of these I believe have merit, I have questions with two of them.
In the second one, he highlights a Derrick Goold proposal to allow any player “taken to arbitration by his team” to become a free agent the very next year.
I was surprised by this, as it is totally impractical and easy to game. First of all, a team does not take a player to hearing. The hearing occurs only when the two sides cannot agree.
Let’s say you are Tommy Pham heading into arb eligibility. You file for $20 million and the team files for $3.5. Of course, the team does not settle and they go to hearing. If you are Pham, so what if you lose the hearing? You’ve ensured free agency that coming fall.
By doing this, they are essentially making free agency after four years. If that is what they want, then just debate that rather than monkey with arbitration.
I also see only a very minimal connection between universal DH and any significant benefit to the players. The assumption is that older, more expensive players will fill the DH spot, but rosters stay at 25 with the same caps. No reason the Cards couldn’t fill their DH with a cheap player like Jose Martinez. Just another way to shuffle the same deck…
There may be other reasons to consider the DH, but I don’t think it would matter much at all in the context of the current problems with free agency.
Anyway, here is the link to the article.
The NFL and the NBA have found labor peace through salary caps related to overall game revenue. No reason that MLB cant as well. The initial contract would be contencious in the areas of what revenues are included and whether you have hard or soft caps and also spending floors but it would eventually get worked out. Seems to.work well for everone in those other sports.
Good points, CC. I am sure MLB already understands other sports’ approaches, but will hold on to their advantage as long as the MLB Players Association lets them. Tony Clark has a lot of work to do. He could use the assistance of Marvin Miller’s ghost.
Maybe I’m about to oversimplify the situation, but here goes.
Since Bud Selig took over in 1992, MLB revenues have risen by an average of just over 5% per year.
But over the past 8 years the luxury tax threshold has increased by roughly 2% per year, and will increase even less than that over the next 2 years (just a paltry 1% a year.) It’s the players’ fault for agreeing to this in the previous CBA’s.
The tax threshold was $174M from 2011-2013. If the tax threshold had kept pace with revenues, the threshold for 2019-2021 would be about $260M instead of $206-$211M. And it would be $283M for 2022-2024 based on the $189 tax threshold of 2014-2016. Believe you me, it ain’t gonna be $283M.
The players negotiated poorly, and now the free agents are paying the price — and thus the “rising tide” of free agent contracts isn’t rising at all, isn’t lifting any other boats. So salaries have stagnated. And will continue to do so until the next CBA is negotiated better by the boys we pay to see.
I thought it was a no doubter for Pham given that arb takes in to account the last 2 years. Except now he has one less thing to complaon about
An Athletic reporter was allowed to sit in with a group of agents as they prepared for arbitration.
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