Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires this offseason, but the owners and players are working toward an agreement and it won’t be a surprise if they announce a deal soon. Here are the details on the collective bargaining process:
- The MLB Players Association is willing to start taxing draft bonus spending, but they're adamantly against a hard-slotting system, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com. Slotting is the final major issue to resolve in talks between MLB and the players' union.
- We should expect a new collective bargaining agreement by the end of the week, according to MLB.com's Barry Bloom (on Twitter).
I hate the slotting issue, but I get it.
On the one hand, spending too much money on any unproven player is a huge gamble that not every team can afford to make. Not every first overall pick ends up being an Adrian Gonzalez, Joe Mauer, or Josh Hamilton. Sometimes you get a Matt Bush, or Bryan Bullington. Now if the Yanks get the first overall every year, they can afford to take the occasional hit. But the smaller market team more likely to get the pick can’t always afford to drop 8mm on a signing bonus for a player that just might not work out. So for the smaller teams, hard slotting makes much more sense.
However, some kid that can hit dingers out of a high school baseball field can also probably throw or catch a football, or dunk a basketball. You set a hard slotting system, and it reduces the incentive for kids to play professional baseball.
I think there’s got to be some kind of limitation, because the bonuses are getting out of hand, but I’m certainly not well-versed enough in personnel valuation to make any real suggestions.
Why the hell are baseballs labor negotiations so simple and drama free when the NBA’s and NFL’s and NHL’s become such messes? Do the players have that much leverage over the Owners? Is it that easy to agree on a revenue split in the MLB? It’s probably the best for the game, but it just seems like the MLBPA is getting everything and anything they desire.
It’s because the last strike was recently enough that everyone involved in negotiations remembers how bad it was for everybody involved in the sport. People were getting uneasy with the NBA after that ref scandal a few years ago and that lockout’s really going to hurt the NBA in the long run.
Basically, those involved in the MLB CBA negotiations are well aware of how badly this could blow up if no one was willing to pick their battles.
I find it interesting that for decades the players union left minor league players out in the cold and cared only about the guys with service time, but now that these kids are getting multimillion dollar signing bonuses the union is there for them 100%.
Have heard that Selig is asking for a 1 to 1 tax for over slot spending in lieu of hard slotting. In other words 1 dollar tax for every 1 dollar over slot.
That would dampen spending a bit.