Despite meeting regularly, the union remains “worlds apart” with the league on core economic aspects of the impending labor negotiations, MLBPA Interim Exec Dir Bruce Meyer said Wednesday. The CBA expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1.
“We continue to meet. We meet almost every week but the core economic stuff we’re worlds apart because the league has proposed a salary cap system … that is worse than anything that’s out there. And then they’ve also made proposals on amateur entry which are terrible for players,” Meyer said on Foul Territory. “So I can’t say we’ve made any progress in economic areas.”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on ESPN’s broadcast of the Little League Classic in August that the league is “planning on playing baseball next year.”
“We’re meeting regularly, which is good,” Manfred said. “Every week, we’ve had days where we’ve met with the players. It’s early, but we’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re at it. Look, our goal is to make a deal. We want to make a deal. We want to play baseball next year. We’re planning on playing baseball next year.”
Meyer also noted the recent pending sale of controlling interest of the Angels from Arte Moreno to Stan Kroenke at an MLB-record valuation of $4B.
“Since we last talked, an owner (Moreno), who was constantly complaining that he couldn’t make money and the business was so bad, he sold his team for $4B, at least, which is a record, (on) a team that he bought for $183M (in 2003) seems like pretty good return,” Meyer said.
As of Wednesday, the two best records in the NL and AL belonged to the small-market Brewers (94-57) and Rays (91-59), “yet we’ve been hearing for years about how these small-market teams literally have no hope and can’t compete,” Meyer said.