The Next CBA
As expected, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was agreed upon before the deadline last night. As predicted, there will be no international draft.
BUT…
(There’s always a but, isn’t there?)
In this case, the scuttlebutt on the “but” is higher bonus pools – somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 to $6M per team per year – in exchange for more severe penalties on teams that exceed the limits.
As Doug Gray pointed out over at Redminorleagues.com, this new limit of $150M to $180M is roughly 40-50% of what teams spent during the last full year of International Free Agency (2015-16), including penalties.
In essence, Gray says, the MLBPA gave away $120 to 150M from amateurs to the owners in exchange for not very much; slightly higher luxury tax thresholds, tweaks to the qualifying-offer system.
To me this is same shit, different CBA. The players’ union and the owners continue to negotiate over monies spent on (or to) people not at the table. Last time, it was the minor leaguers. This time it’s the foreign-born players.
Bottom line: the players we know and love to watch play are being attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis. (Translation).
Don’t even go down the path of what this means socioeconomically… in both cases, young men (or teenage boys) are being asked to trade their youth and/or postpone their education in exchange for a pittance and an infinitesimally small chance to make it to the major leagues.
The Americans at least have the threat of going to college; the (mostly) Dominicans and Venezuelans have nothing. And now they have less.
More details on the CBA are forthcoming, but I’m quite confident we’re not going to see anything that will be better for our guys.
Silly question
With the thin infield depth @ High A upwards … Why don’t nats flip
Mayers baxk to infield from catcher.
Yeah he can’t hit mendoza line , Gil
Rizzo talks with pirates
Mccutcheon and watson for whom????
Start with Goodwin, Espinosa and several others and maybe make three way deal involving Gio
The Nationals/Pirates negotiations for McCutchen are heating up. The names most prominently being mentioned are Lopez and Robles. At worst, hope that’s an either, but not both. Love the potential of both, but losing Robles would hurt more.
On the CBA, the information is sketchy right now, but I’ve only heard that the money pools for the MLB draft will stay the same, and not be reduced, but the amount that the overall #1 pick will be reduced, but there won’t be as a huge difference between the slotting between the picks. Also, there will be an upward bump in minor league salaries particularly for those players that are being sent back and forth to the minors.
Outstanding points about the new CBA. It says a lot about the values of the power players on both sides. Everybody wants a chance to be a megamillionaire but the more necessary goal of sustainable wages for the many is rarely discussed. My avatar probably gives a facepalm to the agreement as yet another missed opportunity for the blessed community that could provide living wages to the masses of ballplayers.
It’s the same thing they do in the NFL/NCAA by forcing players to go through a “minor league” system in which they risk their future health and well being in exchange for a measly college scholarship that for the stars is worth millions less than what they generate in revenue for the universities. If anything, that system is even worse because it creates a huge hypocrisy in forcing many young men to attend college who have no business being there from an academic standpoint and derive little if no benefit from it.
It is indeed reflective of how our society allows wealthy business owners to exploit powerless employees for maximum benefit to their bottom line.
Not sure I understand the perspective here.
So, the system would be better if the large market teams had zero restrictions on the amount that they could spend on the draft and international free agents? This was the case in the 90s, and agents would tell some MLB teams not to draft them because they knew those teams wouldn’t break the bank for bonuses to players that have yet to prove that can even contribute on an MLB level. Also, the big spending teams would horde the best international prospects. The system sucked.
As compared to its past, I think baseball does a decent job at allowing small market teams to be competitive by limiting the amount that all teams can spend on the draft and on international free agents (and their still doesn’t appear to be any restriction on Cuban players or players coming from Asia), while still allowing elite teenage prospects to receive seven figure bonuses. On the other hand, players that have demonstrated their worth by succeeding on the MLB level essentially a limitless opportunity to make as much money as the market allows.
I’m all for supporting the abused worker, but I don’t see it in baseball, including at the minor league level. Think it’s a stretch to compare minor league ball players to migrant workers (and others who similarly situated) who are truly abused by their employers.
Have you ever actually looked at how much minor leaguers make?
For the shortened season leagues: $1150/month. But don’t forget, baseball players don’t get weekends off. They play about 27-28 days per month. Let’s assume that their ‘work’ day is 8 hours (2.5 per game, 1.5 warm up/batting practice, 0.5 post-game, 2 hours gym, 1.5 hours practice drills/watching tape/etc.).
$1150/28 days/8 hour = $5.13 per hour. What are migrant workers being paid these days?
Perhaps you’re not aware of the current lawsuit, spearheaded by Garrett Broshius? As for migrant workers, I would also agree that it’s a stretch, which might be why I didn’t make that comparison.
Excellent points, Luke. I’m as capitalist as it comes, but the way that baseball treats minor leaguers is awful. Kids have no option where they start their career, have little/no ability to negotiate their salary while in the minors, and get paid sub-minimum wage until they reach the bigs (if they ever get there). You would think that the MLBers would care about this, but only the success stories make it to the bigs, and they see the others as “failures” anyway. Someone needs to give the minor leaguers more flexibility in their careers.