I’ve read this a few times now, and I don’t want to overstate things, but it sure strikes me as a significant throw-down moment for the players. This is a major player agent publicly excoriating baseball ownership for how this offseason has proceeded, and specifically mentioning a boycott of Spring Training as a possibility.
Moreover, the author, Brodie Van Wagenen, specifically mentions players being united in a way they haven’t been since 1994 (aka The Strike), and says that the players are willing to forgo money in order to stand together. He even implies that front offices want to spend, but the owners are holding them back.
Wow:
A rising tide… @MLB_PLAYERS pic.twitter.com/jwkoiiI0yt
— Brodie Van Wagenen (@bvanwagenen) February 2, 2018
So, is Van Wagenen speaking only for himself? His agency, CAA? His players? All players? Is the “rising tide” coming? Has it already been discussed?
What’s scary is that, outside of being holdouts on various changes the league wants to negotiate about pace-of-play or scheduling or whatever, the players have absolutely no leverage right now. None. They are locked into a CBA they negotiated for the next four years. So if they have absolutely no negotiating leverage whatsoever, the only tool they might have left if they want to make big, immediate changes is to levy serious work stoppage threats like this one. Like I said … that’s scary.