![]() ![]() CALIBRE SYSTEMS DIRECTOR SALERY FREEManfred, in his letter, pointed to the “$1.7 billion committed to free agents, smashing the prior record by nearly 4x” as proof the system isn’t as broken as players claim and blamed the union for coming “to the bargaining table with a strategy of confrontation over compromise.” The spasm of activity in recent days can be viewed either as a reflection that owners and players envision an eventual return along relatively similar lines, or as a rush to lock deals in place before an uncertain world of change arrives. CALIBRE SYSTEMS DIRECTOR SALERY SERIESStill, it’s a concern for the sport as a whole that every single World Series game this year was outdrawn by regular-season NFL contests in American TV ratings, and that baseball’s fanbase is largely aging.Įach has different solutions – stop tanking and restore competition, say players become stakeholders and grow your share of revenue, say owners – and there are those on both sides who believe the sport’s compensatory structure needs updating to reflect evolutions in how the game is played, managed and evaluated. Owners, after all, can play a long game over decades that players, with their much more finite careers, cannot. The union feels the subsequent negotiations progressively added small changes that have added up to something akin to a loose cap that artificially restrains salaries. The concern now is that in absence of a deadline, there will be no pressure-points to move negotiations forward until reporting dates for spring training near, and there hasn’t been this wide a chasm between the parties since the 1994 strike, when owners were intent on getting a salary cap. That’s what it’s about: It’s avoiding doing damage to the season.” Later, he added, that, “I think when you look at other sports, the pattern has become to control the timing of the labour dispute and try to minimize the prospect of actual disruption of the season. Manfred, in public comments after owners’ meetings last month, pointed to the 1994 strike as a strategic error on MLB’s part and argued that “an off-season lockout that moves the process forward is different than a labor dispute that costs games.” 8 was the players strike that killed the ’94 World Series and sent the Montreal Expos into a death spiral, but ushered in 26 uninterrupted years, even as they came to the brink during negotiations in 20. ![]() Statement from the Major League Baseball Players Association: /34uIGf762WĪ head-spinning run of transactions in recent days made for a bizarre segue back into the labour troubles owners and players faced from 1972 through 1994-95, when there were eight work stoppages (five strikes, three lockouts). ![]() The players association responded by calling the lockout an owners’ choice “specifically calculated to pressure players into relinquishing rights and benefits, and abandoning good faith bargaining proposals that will benefit not just players, but the game and industry as a whole.” Instead, the public-relations fight began nearly as quickly as the lockout was implemented, with commissioner Rob Manfred describing the decision in a letter to fans as a “defensive” manoeuvre needed “because the Players Association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive.” He expressed hoped the negotiations wouldn’t devolve into angry public sniping the way it did before the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, damaging an industry facing worrying headwinds and in need of ways to engage younger fans. That the sides are going down this path is no surprise, as three days of discussions in Dallas failed to avert what one player source briefed on discussions said had long felt inevitable, given the scope of disagreement on core economic issues. TORONTO – Major League Baseball made a jarring transition from billion-plus dollar free-agent frenzy to lockout, starting the sport’s first labour interruption since the 1994 strike immediately after the collective bargaining agreement’s expiration as Wednesday became Thursday. ![]()
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