PHOENIX \u2014 Bruce Meyer defended free agency and salary arbitration on his first full day as head of the baseball players\u2019 association, dismissing any possibility of agreement on a salary cap in another sign of a likely labor confrontation next winter.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old was promoted to executive director on Wednesday, a day after the\u00a0forced resignation of Tony Clark, who had led the union since 2013. The sport’s five-year labor contract\u00a0expires on Dec. 1\u00a0and Major League Baseball is expected to propose a salary cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in a meritocracy,\u201d Meyer said Thursday after meeting with Milwaukee Brewers players. \u201cWe believe in a system, and players believe in a system, that rewards players for performance.”<\/p>\n
MLB players struck for 7 1\/2 months in 1994-95 to fight off a cap proposal, a structure used by the NFL, NBA and NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t believe in a system that\u2019s basically a zero-sum game that says \u2018If we pay you, we\u2019ve got to take that out of the pocket of another player,'” Meyer said. “That\u2019s how the other systems work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer spent 30 years at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges before joining the NHL Players Association in 2016 as senior director of collective bargaining, policy and legal. He\u2019s been the MLBPA’s chief negotiator since 2018, though his tenure hasn\u2019t always been smooth. Some players tried to oust him two years ago, when\u00a0with Clark’s backing he fought off the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re never going to have, with that many people, everybody agreeing with everything,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t happen. Other unions I\u2019ve been involved with and other labor situations, you\u2019re never going to get everyone on the same page. But you try and do the most you can. Disagreements are not just expected, they\u2019re actually great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer defended baseball’s system of salary arbitration and free agency that has existed since the mid-1970s and has pushed the average salary to the $5 million range.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalary arbitration is a crucial right. It\u2019s something that players fought for decades ago,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s important because it\u2019s the first ability a player has to really access something like their free market. It is not a perfect system, but it\u2019s better than the alternative, certainly, that the league has proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the current system,\u00a0Juan Soto was able to command a record $765 million, 15-year contract from the New York Mets. The high-spending Los Angeles Dodgers won their second straight World Series last season after signing\u00a0Shohei Ohtani to a $700 million, 10-year deal.<\/p>\n
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says the teams and fans are concerned about payroll disparity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalary cap doesn\u2019t help players at any level. It doesn\u2019t help the middle-class players,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cIt’s not just a math game because salary cap comes with an erosion or complete elimination essentially of guaranteed contracts. … It eliminates freedom and flexibility. And, of course, over time, once you\u2019re in that system, the history is it always becomes worse and worse for players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark was asked to resign by the eight-man subcommittee after an investigation by the union\u2019s outside counsel discovered evidence he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, a union employee since 2023, a person familiar with the union\u2019s deliberations told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced.<\/p>\n
Meyer said the MLBPA will work with the same outside counsel to determine if any changes needed to be made to the organization in the aftermath of Clark\u2019s resignation, including the future of the union\u2019s office in Scottsdale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that are going to be under review,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019re engaged in best practices at all times. We\u2019ll take recommendations from the people who are advising us, who are doing investigations and audits, everything is up for review.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer expects his interim role will last through the current round of negotiations. Players will then decide how to proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate the way things kind of went down but we\u2019re feeling really good, we\u2019re confident in the people we have,\u201d said Giants pitcher Tristan Beck, the team’s alternate player representative. “Bargaining\u2019s the No. 1 thing on the union\u2019s mind this year and I think we\u2019re in as good a spot as we were yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after he was elected, Meyer spoke with MLB\u2019s chief negotiator, whom he has clashed with during bargaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cDan Halem gave me a call last night, and he was very nice, very gracious, very classy,\u201d Meyer said of the deputy commissioner. \u201cDespite occasional reports of contrary, we have a good relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former All-Star first baseman, Clark had been the first former player to head the union.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony\u2019s relationships are something that I certainly can\u2019t duplicate overnight and maybe not ever,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Meyer rejected claims he is overly influenced by Scott Boras, baseball\u2019s most visible agent.<\/p>\n
\u201cScott is an agent who represents a lot of players,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cHe has no more influence over the running of the union than any other agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Bruce Meyer defended free agency and salary arbitration on his first full day as head of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-486552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}