MILWAUKEE \u2014 Baseball’s union chief said the owners’ proposal of a salary cap this summer was a \u201cnuclear bomb” and players have no interest in the type of economic system Commissioner Rob Manfred maintains is needed for the sport to thrive.<\/p>\n
Shortly before the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays opened the first World Series in 35 years between small-payroll teams in the bottom half of big league spending, players’ association head Bruce Meyer and Manfred held separate media sessions Friday near the first base dugout at American Family Field.<\/p>\n
Baseball’s labour contract expires Dec. 1, and management is expected to immediately lock out the players. That work stoppage could threaten the start of spring training workouts on Feb. 9 and opening day on March 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is kind of sad that the league and the owners have once again been focusing not on the greatness of the game, not on the greatness of the players, not on the greatness of the playoffs, but they\u2019ve been focusing on basically telling the consumers of their product that their product is broken,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee ranked 19th in payroll as of Aug. 31 and Tampa Bay 25th. The Brewers, in the Series for the first time since 1982, are seeking their first title, as are the Rays.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been 40 years since we\u2019re here. Once every 40 years is not enough,” Manfred said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that no small market can win, it’s just that it\u2019s pretty rare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three low-payroll teams reached the League Championship Series this year: Tampa Bay eliminated Cleveland, which has the smallest payroll, in the ALCS. Milwaukee eliminated the deep-pocketed, two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meyer said the success of these teams shows the current economic system works.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason whatsoever that the Pirates can\u2019t do what the Brewers have done or what the Rays have done. None whatsoever, right?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee is ranked 30th among MLB teams in market size and Tampa Bay 15th. While the union points to this as evidence the current system is working, Manfred claimed the matchups showed why change is needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one ever said that differences in economics are perfectly outcome-determined,” he said. \u201cIf you look at the data, our larger markets have a very statistically significant advantage in terms of making the playoffs and going deeper into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLB\u2019s proposal would cap spending in 2027 at US$245.3 million using figures for luxury tax payrolls, and limit a player to 15 per cent of a team\u2019s payroll. Free agents would be capped at $265 million over six seasons \u2014 far under Juan Soto\u2019s record $765 million, 15-year deal with the New York Mets.<\/p>\n
Because all of management’s proposals are tied to a cap, Meyer claimed \u201cthe rest of it is a charade.\u201d Those proposals have included granting some players free agency a year sooner, shortening seasons to 154 games and adding post-season games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would be a tough negotiation even without their demand for the nuclear bomb of the salary cap,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis notion that the owners need a cap and that a cap would somehow guarantee this utopia of competitive balance and fan engagement, it\u2019s just not true. It makes no sense at all,\u201d he added. \u201cWe should be appreciating and promoting the things that we have now instead of trying to tear it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLB proposed a salary cap in 1994, and it led to a 7 1\/2-month strike that caused the World Series to be cancelled for the first time in 90 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNumber one, we have an unprecedented level of unanimity among ownership that this is something that we need to do, that we need to get ourselves in a position to operate like all the other major professional sports in North America,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cSecondly, and even more importantly to me, our fan polling, and we do it regularly, has moved hard in the direction of the fact that we have a problem and that our fans see a salary cap as the answer to that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyer dismissed the argument that a cap would benefit competitive balance.<\/p>\n
“All of this is really about their desire to make more money in the form of profits and increased franchise values, which they don\u2019t have to share with players,” he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about competitive balance. It\u2019s not about teams not having hope. It\u2019s about, again, their desire, which they\u2019ve had for decades, to have a system that artificially suppresses player salaries and player freedom of movement, removes player guarantees and limits flexibility in all different areas, guts the amateur entry system. The rest of it is a charade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Extending the current contract for a year?<\/p>\n
Meyer said it would be complicated to extend the expiring five-year contract for another season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose anything\u2019s possible. There\u2019s been no discussion about that,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t seem to like the current system, so I\u2019m not sure why they would agree to continue that. Even, theoretically, if the parties agree, let\u2019s continue some version of the status quo, it\u2019s easier said than done. What happens to the minimum salary? What happens to the luxury tax proceeds? What happens for the pre-arb pool?\u201d<\/p>\n
Players have proposed expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights along with almost doubling the major league minimum salary and increasing the money high-revenue teams share with the less-wealthy clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBruce Meyer\u2019s not prepared to do a status-quo deal and the fact of the matter is he\u2019s made a lot of demands about improvements that they want,” Manfred said.<\/p>\n
Negotiations for baseball in 2028 Olympics appear stalled<\/p>\n
The sides have been discussing the possibility for big league players to participate in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain things that we believe players should be entitled to, things that they expect as the level of athlete that they are,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cAs of now, we\u2019re not getting satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manfred said work on the 2028 schedule typically would start in January. An extended All-Star break is envisioned to allow big league players to appear in the Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MLB monitoring federal probe of Dodgers owner Mark Walter<\/p>\n
Manfred said the sport is paying attention to an investigation into Dodgers owner Mark Walter by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission following a whistleblower complaint regarding alleged misrepresented loans made between companies within his business portfolio.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs always, when we have an investigation, external law enforcement, whatever, we monitor that and that\u2019s where we are right now,\u201d Manfred said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 Baseball’s union chief said the owners’ proposal of a salary cap this summer was a \u201cnuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-944179","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\/944179","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=944179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}