The Major League Baseball and MLB Players Association (MLBPA) met for the seventh day in a row in Jupiter, Florida on Sunday, although although no new labor agreement has been reached, both sides appear to have made progress.
Officials from both sides met on five separate occasions for more than six hours on Sunday, a league source called “Production”. No further details were reported.
Meetings will continue at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, the last day to reach an agreement before the deadline set by Major League Baseball. MLB has set a date for the season to start on March 31st as planned.
Earlier this month, Commissioner Rob Manfred said that based on injury data and experience from the epidemic-compressed 2020 season, spring training should last at least four weeks to be adequately prepared for the season.
Important aspects still to be resolved to reach a new labor contract include the competitive balance tax, Super 2 eligibility, service time handling, pre-arbitration bonus and minimum wage.
The league offered a draft lottery that would offer the first six choices – two more than any other league in the game – and agreed to implement part of the MLBPA’s plan.
The league has agreed to offer full-year service time to any player who takes first or second place in their league rookie vote. This will motivate teams to know that they are getting a full year of service time, regardless of whether the teams are performing to the best of their ability and to improve the best opportunities as soon as possible.
Instead of draft lottery and service time proposals, the MLB asked for a post-season expansion to 14 teams (the union still offers 12 teams), as well as the ability to make changes to field rules with 45 days notice. Requires current organization, union approval or full year notice. Those rule changes will be handled by a panel of six executive officers, two MLBPA representatives and one arbitrator.
There was no movement in the MLBPA’s Saturday proposals for minimum wages or pre-arbitration bonus funds, two issues raised by the union in its most recent plans.
The union has reduced the demand for Super 2 qualification from 75 percent to 35 percent, but the MLB deserves any change in the current system – 22 percent of those players are eligible. To the arbitral tribunal – it can not.
From the beginning of the negotiations, the players emphasized that getting paid more at the beginning of their careers was one of the union’s main goals. Between the league’s proposals for a minimum wage increase and the arbitration bonus fund, MLB offered players more than $ 250 million in additional arbitration compensation during their five-year contract.
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