BRADENTON, Fla. -- Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and Players Association leader Tony Clark met for the first time since the league instituted a lockout in December, but the two sides failed yet again to make significant progress towards a new collective bargaining agreement.
It has not been reported on what the two sides talked about. It was the first time Manfred was present for this week’s negotiations in Jupiter, Fla.
The league has set a Feb. 28 deadline to reach a new CBA before regular season games will start to be canceled, not just postponed. The league also announced Friday that spring training games through at least March 7 have been postponed.
Both sides will continue to negotiate through that deadline, having another session Saturday.
Those daily negotiations started on Monday, and while the fact the two sides are talking is encouraging, very little progress has been made in that time.
Per reports, the two sides did make some progress on the proposed draft lottery, which is one of the three main issues that need to be resolved to reach a new CBA. At the last proposal, the league proposed that the bottom four teams would be eligible for the lottery, while the players lowered their request from eight to seven teams.
However, the most pressing issue remains the competitive balance tax. The league has proposed raising it from $210 to $214 million, while players have proposed a $245 million luxury tax. Neither side has moved much from their initial proposal in this regard, and it’s hard to envision talks picking up until at least one side shows a willingness to alter their offer.
The two sides are also far apart on how pre-arbitration players should be compensated. Both sides agree that the minimum salary should be raised and that there should be a bonus pool from the league to give players who perform well bonuses, but the proposals are far apart. The owners have offered a $20 million pool, a $640,000 minimum salary per year and $10,000 increases per year, while players have offered a $115 million pool, $775,000 salary and $30K per year increases.
The union’s plan would also increase the number of players who are super-two eligible for another year of arbitration from 22% of players with 2-3 years of service time to 75%.
This lockout is the second longest work stoppage in the sport’s history, behind only the 1994-1995 players strike.