On Thursday, Major League Baseball made its first proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement to the Players Association since instituting a lockout on Dec. 2.
The proposal did not do much to potentially bring an end to the lockout, though, with the player’s association reportedly being far from impressed with how the talks went. As a result, it’s looking more likely that spring training will not start on time.
According to a report by Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers of ESPN, the league’s proposal would not change the number of years of control a player has before they reach free agency.
The minimum salary would be raised from $575,000 to $600,000-$700,000, based on the player’s service time. Super-2 designation, which allows players to go through arbitration one more time, would be eliminated in favor of a performance-based payment for those players between two and three years of service time.
The luxury tax threshold was proposed to be raised only $4 million to $214 million, with stricter punishments for those who go over the limit, including higher taxes and loss of draft picks. The union had proposed a $245 million luxury tax.
There was no reported proposal of a salary floor.
The league’s proposal also called for a universal designated hitter and expanding the postseason to 14 teams. The union had proposed a 12-team postseason field.
The union had previously proposed having players reach free agency and arbitration sooner. According to Jon Heyman, the league is strongly against the former.
MLB remans dead set against lowering free agency from 6 years to 5. Part of the concern stems from the history of the big stars jumping from smaller markets to big markets when they hit free agency and belief this would hurt competitive balance.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 13, 2022
The league did offer a proposal to potentially help curb service time manipulation, offering teams draft picks if a prospect starts the year in the majors and either wins rookie of the year or finishes in the top three of MVP or Cy Young voting.
After 43 days of no talks between the two sides, the player’s association will counter next, though there is no timetable for when that may come.
The Pirates’ first spring training game is scheduled for Feb. 26. While there isn’t an official date for pitchers and catchers to report, they have arrived about 10 days before that first game the last two years.