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MLBPA Launches Investigation Of Comments From Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos

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9:50pm: Anthopoulos has issued a statement (via the Braves, on Twitter), saying: “In advance of the General Managers meetings, I called around to Clubs to explore the possibility of potential off-season trades. At no time during any of these calls was there discussion of individual free agents or the Braves’ intentions with respect to the free agent market. To the extent I indicated otherwise during my media availability on Monday, I misspoke and apologize for any confusion.”

5:40pm: Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, announced Wednesday that the MLBPA has launched an investigation looking into recent comments from Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos. Specifically, the union took umbrage with the following comment Anthopoulos made during a recent conference call with Atlanta beat writers (link via The Athletic’s David O’Brien):

Every day you get more information. And we’ve had time to connect with 27 of the clubs — obviously the Astros and (Nationals) being in the World Series, they were tied up — but we had a chance to get a sense of what the other clubs are going to look to do in free agency, who might be available in trades.

The MLBPA’s issue stems from Anthopoulos’ acknowledgment of getting a feel for how other clubs plan to act in free agency. With regard to sharing intel in free agency, the collective bargaining agreement states: “Players shall not act in concert with other Players, and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs.” In a press release, Clark expressed extreme displeasure with Anthopoulos’ assertion and offered the following response:

The statements made by Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos call into question the integrity of the entire free-agent system. The clear description of Club coordination is egregious, and we have launched an immediate investigation looking into the matter.

It’s the latest chapter in a saga that has seen tension between labor and management mount at an alarming rate. Clark and the Union have previously asked the league to investigate whether low-payroll clubs have appropriately utilized their revenue-sharing resources — the Pirates and Marlins, specifically — as multiple agents (including agent-turned-Mets-GM Brodie Van Wagenen) have spoken of “coordinated” efforts on the part of owners to scale back salaries at the Major League level. Clark has also accused MLB teams of a “race to the bottom,” and more recently raised issue with teams’ early assertions that they’ll face payroll constraints despite the continual increase in franchise values. (The Royals and Marlins have recently sold for $1 billion and $1.2 billion.)

There’s been no shortage of speculation surrounding a potential labor stoppage at the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement (in 2021). The extent of the unrest has prompted the league and the union to begin negotiations for the next CBA much earlier than they’d normally have begun such discussions, but today’s statement from Clark only underscores the chasm that currently exists between the two sides.

Tony Clark Skeptical Of Organizational Spending Plans

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After a 2018 offseason that saw countless veterans linger on the free agent vine much longer than anticipated, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark is expecting yet another cooled stove this winter–and, judging from comments made to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal on Thursday, he doesn’t sound particularly pleased about it.

“The Hot Stove season has traditionally been about ticket sales and fan engagement,” Clark told Rosenthal. “Yet several clubs are laying the groundwork for more of the same [this offseason], even as franchise values skyrocket and central revenues continue to increase. These blanket proclamations send precisely the wrong message to fans, and undermine the competitive landscape that fuels interest in the game from day one of spring training through the final game of the World Series.”

For context, it’s important to note that Clark is largely responding to recent comments made by several C-level club executives and owners around the game: Red Sox brass has indicated a desire to get under the CBT threshold in advance of 2020; the Rockies, fresh off of a fourth-place season, indicated a lack of “flexibility” in regard to finances for 2020; and, just this week, our own Steve Adams delved into the possible maneuvers the Astros could undertake in avoidance of the luxury tax line, after owner Jim Crane poured cold water on the idea of a Houston-Geritt Cole reunion. For teams at every position in the standings, “spending” has become a center-stage PR concern in 2019.

Clark also took pains to note that MLB saw a decline in gate attendance for the fourth consecutive season, with, specifically, a 1.6 year-over-year drop from 2018 to 2019. That such a decline would occur while another term–“tanking”–is also becoming common parlance would seem to add some teeth to Clark’s comments. In 2019, 20 teams finished with 90-or-more losses or 90-or-more wins, while a whopping eight teams finished with 100-or-more losses or 100-or-more wins.

Rosenthal’s column also features comments from MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem, who takes–as one might expect–a more tempered view of game-wide spending patterns, noting that the Minnesota Twins saw a huge jump in 2019 attendance despite a quiet 18-19 offseason in terms of spending (the club’s two “major” expenditures being a collective three years of commitment to Marwin Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz). Certainly, this instance of public back-and-forth represents an interesting bit of repartee occurring between both league and players union in advance of the current collective bargaining agreement’s expiration in December of 2021.

MLB, Players Association Discuss Prospect Of Mandated Opioid Testing

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Major League Baseball and the Players Association have no shortage of topics to talk about these days, but a new issue has forced its way onto the agenda: opioid testing. The autopsy results after the tragic passing of Tyler Skaggs turned this national conversation into a touch point for MLB, and the two sides are discussing the possibilities of including random screenings for opioids into the official drug testing program, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

Opioids do appear on the banned-substance list – a fine first step – but major league players aren’t subject to testing without reasonable cause. Tony Clark, the executive director of the Players Association, released a statement last Friday in which he said: “For several reasons, including the tragic loss of a member of our fraternity and other developments happening in the country as a whole, it is appropriate and important to reexamine all of our drug protocols relating to education, treatment and prevention.”

As drug testing has been an area of relative common ground in recent years, an accord here could inject a note of harmony to a negotiation largely fraught with skepticism.  Even so, don’t expect anything contractual in the near-term. The opioid crisis is but one issue among many being discussed in the lead up to CBA negotiations in 2021. MLB and the Players Association are meeting about once a month for these “early negotiations,” per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. While these sessions could not be more foundational to the overall discussions, the goal of diplomacy at this stage is more to about gauging temperature than putting pen to paper.

Both sides cite player welfare as a primary objective of these preliminary talks, though at present, there’s little reason to suspect pervasive use of opioids throughout the game. What information they do have comes from mandated testing for minor leaguers, who lack union protection and therefore are subject to testing and discipline by the commissioner’s office. More than 78,000 tests have been conducted for minor league players, resulting in just 12 suspensions, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan.

Still, fentanyl is the leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S., and the Skaggs autopsy provided an opportunity to be proactive. The rate and severity of injury puts players at risk for exposure through short-term surgical use, and most players certainly have the financial means to foster ongoing abuse should it become an issue. There is likely to be stronger solution in the new CBA, as leaving the safety of players to the discretion of team doctors is hardly the most comprehensive approach, not to mention the burden of responsibilities it places on the doctors themselves.

“Fierce Union Advocate” Rick Shapiro Parts Ways With MLB Players Association

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The MLB Players Association has ended their relationship with long-time executive Rick Shapiro, per ESPN’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). Shapiro had seen his role and influence with the Players Union increasingly diminished in recent months.  

Parting ways with one of their lawyers feels like a significant move, especially as we get closer to defining the real meat of the 2021 labor negotiations. Of Shapiro’s particular influence, Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter) writes:

“Shapiro was a fierce union advocate, but also someone MLB viewed as knowing the history of CBA negotiations and capable of getting to a deal, so his exit is another sign of war drums by the union with the end of the CBA coming following 2021. Haven spoken to multiple agents tonight who feel this is a big loss for union, in part because Shapiro also was a key figure in the arbitration process and this loss of his institutional knowledge and advocacy will not be easily replaced. Since the death of Mike Weiner and naming of Tony Clark to lead the union, Rick’s influence had internally waned. Still agents were shocked that the end came this morning rather than waiting until the next CBA was completed. The union did not want to comment on this matter.”

Given the shifting tenor of contract negotiators in general between players and owners, departing a well-regarded litigator is a notable move for the union. Without comment or knowledge of corresponding moves, however, it’s presumptuous to assume this move speaks to a willingness (or even eagerness) on the players’ part to “lean in” to the coming conflict (as it seems on the surface).

That said, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that there are many in the industry who feel this is a sign of the growing momentum of a potential strike. Regardless, Shapiro’s exit can be added to the catalog of happenings to keep near-at-hand as we sift through narratives in advance of the 2021 collecting bargaining negotiation.

MLB Awards “Championship Belt” During Arbitration Symposium

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Major League Baseball hosts an annual symposium on arbitration wherein delegates from each team come together with the league to make recommendations for upcoming arbitration hearings. There is a ceremony near the end of the symposium when a “championship belt” is awarded to the team that best accomplished the “goals set by the industry,” per The Athletic’s Marc Carig. Passed annually from one year’s winner to the next, The Belt is a chintzy, plastic “prize,” intended as a moment of levity and morale for what can be a difficult process on all sides. In this thoughtful article, Carig digs into the arbitration process, its history, the toll it takes on those involved, and of course, The Belt.

Clearly, given the tumultuous relationship between Major League Baseball, the owners, and the Players’ Association, the optics here aren’t great. However harmless the intent (or however private), an award for essentially best limiting the earning potential for players is not likely to sit well with the MLBPA – or the public for that matter. MLB confirmed existence of The Belt, explaining it as “an informal recognition of those club’s salary arbitration departments that did the best.” This season, the finalists were the Astros, Braves, Cubs, Indians, Rays, and Twins.

Executive Director of the MLBPA Tony Clark reacted with a statement (via Twitter), saying, “That clubs make sport of trying to suppress salaries in a process designed to produce fair settlements shows a blatant lack of respect for our Players, the game, and the arbitration process itself.”

MLBPA Extends Contract Of Executive Director Tony Clark

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The Major League Baseball Players Association has voted to extend the contract of executive director Tony Clark, according to Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal. His term of office is now due to run through 2022, meaning he’ll stay in charge through the duration of the five-year Basic Agreement he previously negotiated and lead the MLBPA as it prepares to hammer out a new one in 2021.

Clark, a long-time MLB player himself, took the top union post in December of 2013 after the untimely death of Michael Weiner. At the time, the sport was basking in the glow of booming economic growth and longstanding labor peace. The relatively pleasant pie-dividing process has more recently given way to some bickering at the table. Even as the money continues to stream in, teams have increasingly shown a reluctance to commit whopping future sums to relatively old free agents. That, in turn, has many questioning whether the MLBPA needs to craft a new strategic approach.

There are a whole host of interrelated factors at work, of course, including changes to the aging curve, the still-growing power of analytics in all aspects of the game, and perhaps also increasingly business-focused organizational leadership. And it’d be foolish to leap to any final conclusions about the nature of the player market. The best way to ensure revenue for a team, after all, is still to put a compelling product on the field. And the 2018 attendance drop no doubt was felt by some organizations. Competitive pressures still matter.

Still, the collective bargaining situation — in particular, the outcome of the 2016 negotiations — remains a notable factor in the changing labor market dynamics that have been met with no small amount of consternation by the players. As details of the 2016 CBA deal emerged, it became increasingly clear that the Clark-led union approach was one of tweaking the details of the existing system. There were modifications to the qualifying offer, a process that unfairly impacted a few veteran free agents but did not take a major bite out of the players’ overall take. The minimum salary crept up, as did the luxury tax line, and players added gained notable scheduling modifications and other changes to improve their lot.

At the same time, though, the MLBPA gave some notable concessions to the league that may well have dovetailed with other developments to hur the players’ collective bottom line. In particular, significant new penalties for spending over the luxury line held out the promise of constraining top-level payrolls. Meanwhile, a hard cap went in place for international signings, leaving virtually the entire amateur market subject to strict limits.

Those modifications have pressed established big leaguers from both sides, in a manner that was perhaps not easy to foresee in full. Teams are not only disincentivized from adding additional large salaries to finish off a roster, owing to the taxation scheme, but have less reason to do so given their ability to achieve excess value from young talent filtering up through the farm (which is cheaply replaced through the amateur market). An abundance of power arms, for example, has led to the cost-efficient approach of “bullpenning,” while big-market organizations like the Dodgers and Yankees have increasingly found ways to achieve excellent results without dishing out too many monster contracts. Of course, the more truly youthful players are pressed up to the majors, the sooner they’ll reach arbitration and free agency, and the more “prime” years they’ll have to sell.

It will likely take some time for the market changes to settle out and reveal themselves in full. Still, the problems from the players’ side were on display last winter, as numerous veterans found less receptive markets than they had anticipated. Clark went on a PR blitz as the market stagnated and filed a grievance against four teams that accuses them of failing to properly spend their revenue-sharing funds. As a practical matter, though, there wasn’t much that could be done at that point.

For Clark, looking ahead, there are strategic challenges aplenty. The union may need to consider trying more radical changes to its approach, which has traditionally benefited the most-established ballplayers while leaving relative crumbs for young major leaguers and high-end incoming amateurs (and actual crumbs for most minor-leaguers). Gambling money is another potentially game-changing financial boon for teams — and one that the players will not only want a piece of, but could utilize to their advantage from a public relations standpoint.

No doubt there are many possible strategies on the table. With a new lead negotiator to assist him, Clark is surely preparing for the 2021 CBA negotiations and the interim actions that might be taken. As veteran reliever Andrew Miller puts it, “We have confidence in Tony with where we are and where we’re going.”

MLBPA Hires New CBA Negotiator

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The Major League Baseball Players Association announced yesterday that it has hired veteran attorney Bruce Meyer to serve as its senior director of collective bargaining & legal. He is expected to play a leading role in the MLBPA’s negotiation efforts with MLB.

According to the announcement, Meyer “will report to [MLBPA executive director] Tony Clark while focusing on all facets of the negotiation and the enforcement of baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.”

Meyer comes to the game of baseball after decades of experience with unions of other sports. Most recently, he worked for the National Hockey League Player’s Association. There, he functioned alongside NHLPA executive director Don Fehr, the former longtime MLBPA director.

Fehr’s notable run at the helm of the MLBPA — which spanned several contentious and controversial episodes in labor relations — came to an end when he stepped down in 2009, handing the reins to Michael Weiner. Upon Weiner’s untimely death in late 2013, the top job passed down to Clark.

The addition of Meyer atop the MLBPA negotiation team comes nearly two years after the most recent round of CBA negotiations. The resulting agreement in many ways maintained preexisting approaches to managing the contractual interactions of players and teams, but included several notable rules tweaks that many believe operated to the detriment of players (see, e.g., this post from Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper).

In particular, the luxury tax line and international spending limitations have arguably harmed MLB players’ earning upside, particularly for quality veterans seeking long-term deals in free agency. It’s worth bearing in mind, though, that there’s another fascinating market test coming up this winter. While multiple big-market organizations made sure in the last offseason to reset their luxury tax rates (which increase upon consecutive seasons in excess of the spending line), those same teams and others could now be freed to loosen their purse strings somewhat.

Three more years remain for the union to gather evidence and plot a strategic course before a ramp-up toward a new CBA. In the meantime, the MLBPA has already launched a grievance action against four teams for allegedly failing to properly utilize funds received through revenue-sharing rules.

Just how the Meyer hiring will influence the progress of labor relations remains to be seen. With his litigation background — the announcement notes he has worked on “several landmark grievances and lawsuits brought on behalf of Players across each of the North American major professional sports” — Meyer certainly has experience in more confrontational means of engaging with sports leagues and owners. Surely, though, the preference on all sides will remain the avoidance of any disruptions to business, particularly as the game of baseball encounters some tricky issues with respect to the nature of the game, its competitive balance, and its delivery to consumers in person and through a screen.

For his part, Meyer says the move represents an “opportunity to continue my commitment as a Player advocate.” He also noted in his statement that he “believe[s] in Tony’s vision for the Players and for the organization,” a message evidently intended to convey internal solidarity and affirm Clark’s leadership position in light of the criticism he has received.

U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Federal Ban On Sports Betting

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The United States Supreme Court on Monday voted 7-2 in favor of reversing the federal ban on sports betting (link via Robert Barnes of the Washington Post). States legislatures will now be free to set their own laws as pertaining to betting on professional and college sporting events. Full details of the ruling are available at the Supreme Court’s web site. From the ruling, as set forth by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.:

The legalization of sports gambling is a controversial subject. Supporters argue that legalization will produce revenue for the States and critically weaken illegal sports betting operations, which are often run by organized crime. Opponents contend that legalizing sports gambling will hook the young on gambling, encourage people of modest means to squander their savings and earnings, and corrupt professional and college sports.

The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. [The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act] is not. PASPA “regulate[s] state governments’ regulation” of their citizens, New York, 505 U. S., at 166. The Constitution gives Congress no such power.

Major League Baseball has issued the following statement on the matter:

“Today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court will have profound effects on Major League Baseball. As each state considers whether to allow sports betting, we will continue to seek the proper protections for our sport, in partnership with other professional sports. Our most important priority is protecting the integrity of our games. We will continue to support legislation that creates airtight coordination and partnerships between the state, the casino operators and the governing bodies in sports toward that goal.”

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark has also weighed in on the subject:

“The court’s decision is monumental, with far-reaching implications for baseball players and the game we love. From complex intellectual property questions to the most basic issues of player safety, the realities of widespread sports betting must be addressed urgently and thoughtfully to avoid putting our sport’s integrity at risk as states proceed with legalization.”

[Related: Hoops Rumors on impact of Supreme Court ruling on NBA]

Of course, sports betting already exists in prominent fashion throughout the United States. Barnes’ piece above cites an estimated $150 billion annual valuation of the underground sports betting market in the U.S., which doesn’t include already legalized betting at sportsbooks in Nevada casinos. Certainly, though, widespread legalization of the matter creates many potential causes for concern and also for revenue; NBA commissioner Adam Silver, for instance, has openly expressed a desire to be compensated for the compensated for his league’s “additional costs involving integrity,” (via Michael Scotto of The Athletic). ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported earlier this year that the NBA could seek one percent of every bet legally placed on its outcomes.

The state of New Jersey had the support of 18 other states, per Barnes, in seeking to legalize betting in their state. Justine McDaniel of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets that the state of Pennsylvania, for instance, legalized sports betting last year in anticipation of federal legalization.

Boras, Halem Continue Quarrel Over Free Agent Activity

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Agent Scott Boras jabbed back at Major League Baseball’s comments to ESPN’s Crasnick this evening, writes FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Specifically, Boras questioned how the league could reconcile the notion of commenting on any offers made to unsigned players — a reference to Manfred telling Crasnick that some players had received “nine figure” offers.

“I find it interesting that free agents have nine-figure offers since the CBA mandates that teams not share that sort of information,” said Boras. “I am also curious how a public statement communicated to all teams about offers on the table and players demanding too much money from a central league office … is any different from the infamous ’information bank’ in the 1980s.”

MLB chief legal officer Dan Halem responded to Boras’ comments (also per Heyman):

“If Mr. Boras spent as much time working on getting his players signed as he does issuing inflammatory and unsubstantiated statements to the press, perhaps the events of this off-season would be different.”

Boras, without missing a beat, replied by pointing out that Halem made no denial that the league’s comments on the nature of offers some players have received contained the type of information that should not be made public and should not be known about by league officials. He also invoked statements from former union chief Donald Fehr made more than three decades ago:

“I’d be embarrassed,” Fehr said of MLB owners back in 1987. “But they aren’t. And the reason they aren’t is that they have decided that winning a battle with the players over salaries is more important than winning on the field. Winning on the field is secondary these days. The owners apparently feel they will come out no matter what.”

To Boras’ credit, it does seem curious that the league’s statement would openly acknowledge the size of offers that some players have received. In addition to running counter to the CBA, the comments hardly paint players in a favorable light at a time in which commissioner Rob Manfred is spearheading efforts to broadly expand the game’s appeal to a younger audience. If anything, today’s statement only furthers the popular “greedy player” narrative — one which often ignores that the alternative is for the even wealthier owners to simply pocket money not spent on player contracts.

While those numbers weren’t exactly a secret after being leaked to the media by various sources, likely from both the agent and team side of the equation in various cases, it was nonetheless surprising to see the league stating those numbers in a factual manner (even if it was merely in reference to media reports; it’s not clear which was the case in this instance).

Of course, it’s also worth noting that Boras is making a reach by likening the current economic state of free agency to one in which owners were proven to have colluded, resulting in mass one-year deals throughout the league and, eventually, an “information bank” in which owners readily shared intel on the types of offers that were being made to free agents.

Boras’ usage of Fehr’s comments, though, was more likely in reference to the spirit of competition (or lack thereof) and the number of “tanking” teams that aren’t endeavoring to put forth a winning club in 2018. Viewed through that lens, there’s some merit to the reference, but teams today certainly have greater incentive to tank than the more financial motives of those late-80s clubs. Furthermore, the five-year deal for Lorenzo Cain as well as reported seven-year offers for Eric Hosmer and five-year offers for J.D. Martinez and Yu Darvish underscore the fact that it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

That point seems particularly worth highlighting; while many critics of the labor side of this dispute express difficulty in sympathizing with millionaire players that aren’t finding often outlandish contractual demands met, the larger issue isn’t so much that players like Hosmer, Martinez and Yu Darvish aren’t receiving offers in excess of $150MM. Rather, one of the main gripes — certainly the one voiced by Boras and MLBPA chief Tony Clark today — is simply that not enough teams are making any sort of effort, and their refraining from free agency entirely has eliminated the game’s general spirit of yearly competition (both on the field and on the open market). In addition to limiting the market for the top-tier talents, the absence of 10 or more teams on the free-agent market dramatically erodes the market for mid-range free agents who, in prior winters, would’ve happily taken two- and three-year deals from teams that may not be clear division-championship-level contenders. Obviously, there’s time yet for offers from some such teams to materialize.

Of course, as has been pointed out on many occasions — the players themselves bear no shortage of responsibility in the matter. The current structure of amateur talent acquisition in Major League Baseball disproportionately rewards noncompetitive clubs in both the draft and the amateur international market, thereby encouraging teams to strive for high draft picks rather than taking an against-the-odds shot at a Wild Card berth. Those measures, as well as the luxury tax that many of the game’s heaviest spenders are treating as a soft salary cap, were agreed upon by the union in the most recent wave of collective bargaining a bit more than one year ago.

Tony Clark Accuses MLB Teams Of “Race To The Bottom”

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MLBPA chief Tony Clark has issued a statement, first provided by ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick, leveling significant accusations at MLB organizations. With a huge number of free agents still un-signed, Clark says that teams have failed to engage the market in earnest.

Here is the full statement:

“Pitchers and catchers will report to camps in Florida and Arizona next week. A record number of talented free agents remain unemployed in an industry where revenues and franchise values are at record highs.

Spring Training has always been associated with hope for a new season. This year a significant number of teams are engaged in a race to the bottom. This conduct is a fundamental breach of the trust between a team and its fans and threatens the very integrity of our game.”

Notably, Clark does not accuse teams of acting in concert to artificially suppress earnings — quite a different, more serious potential charge for which we’ve seen no evidence. Rather, his view seems to coincide with the broad points already presented by some prominent media members and agents (as well as at least one sitting GM): i.e., that more teams than usual are strategically disinterested in trying to win in the coming season.

Unsurprisingly, Major League Baseball has a different view of the matter that reflect prior comments from commission Rob Manfred. In a statement released to Crasnick, the league rejects Clark’s characterization as an “unfair” attack on MLB teams. Arguing that many top free agents are “sitting unsigned even though they have substantial offers,” the league statement suggests that agents have failed to “value their clients” reasonably “in a constantly changing free agent market based on factors such as positional demand, advanced analytics, and the impact of the new Basic Agreement.”

Clark’s statement seems to represent a notable ramp up in the rhetoric surrounding the notably slow free agent process this winter. At the moment, though, it seems that this is mostly a war of words for public relations positioning. Camps will soon open without several prominent players, barring some quick developments in the market, which will dramatically raise the visibility of this long-simmering dispute.

The union/agent stance seems to be a familiar one, arguing that tanking tactics are reducing competition for top free agents. From the league/team side, as the above statement suggests, the rejoinder is that clubs are within their rights to operate as they see fit within the rules regime agreed upon by collective bargaining. It isn’t too difficult to see how each side hopes to draw upon the natural but competing inclinations of fans both to chide “cheap” owners and to turn a skeptical eye toward “selfish” players.

In truth, this debate isn’t a new one. Tanking has been discussed for years. Manfred’s prior argument was, in essence, that the market adequately allows for such a strategy; it’s just not that successful an approach if too many teams employ it, since inevitably plenty of clubs will “lose” the “race to the bottom” and fail to recoup top draft picks, etc. Dave Cameron has argued, though, that this year may be somewhat unique in that, for many teams, the incentives to pursue draft status and cost savings may be sufficient to outweigh an expensive, low-odds effort to chase down the half-dozen “super teams” currently pacing the game.

As Evan Drellich rightly observes on Twitter, the concept of tanking does not really adequately cover the deeper mechanisms at play. There’s more at play here, somewhere in the intermingling of pervasive and deepening analytics; aging curves in a (mostly) post-PED era; and drastically cabined amateur spending and other collectively bargained rules. The most recent collective bargaining agreement largely continued the preexisting rules regime, with a few tweaks, largely reflecting an assumption that market mechanisms would allow player compensation to keep pace with earnings growth. Even as they swim in revenue, though, MLB organizations increasingly seem to be pursuing strategies that eschew major long-term free agent entanglements — potentially challenging the assumptions undergirding the players’ commitment to the existing CBA framework.

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