With the international draft issue out of the way (for now), the sides were cleared to try to come to an overall Collective Bargaining Agreement today and still try to save the full 162-game season. That meant the owners would have to respond to the players’ last offer from yesterday afternoon, and we all just sit here and pray that it’s a reasonable counter.
The only bit we’ve seen so far has the owners moving a little bit more in the players’ direction, though they’ve clearly already made their big moves:
Latest MLB proposal, per source:
Luxury-tax thresholds – $230M to $244M over course of five-year deal. (increase of $2M in final year from last offer)
Pre-arb pool: $50M (increase of $10M)
Minimum salaries, $700K to $780K. (increase of $10K in final year)
3 p.m. “deadline.”
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 10, 2022
The question now is whether this goes to a full vote for the players to approve or reject. That 3pm “deadline” could wind up today’s meaningful deadline – as in, the new one to save 162 games. Stay tuned. If a deal does get done today, free agency could open back up as soon as tonight.
UPDATE (1:56pm ET): I’m gonna ignore the “vote” part of this for now, because Heyman has been off on a lot of these lately. But the grievance part is worth mentioning:
Union expected to vote soon on MLB offer. Initial read: “Very promising except they want (2018) lawsuit dropped.” (MLB apparently included request for union to drop its lawsuit vs Marlins, Rays, A’s, Pirates)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 10, 2022
There is also the 2020 pandemic season grievance still outstanding, and previously there were reports that owners wanted that one dropped, too. Are you ready for that to become the latest sticking point that blows things up, baby?
UPDATE (2:01pm ET): Oh boy, they indeed took it to a vote:
Source: players are voting now on MLB’s CBA proposal, many already have cast their vote.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) March 10, 2022
If it passes, that’s that. If it doesn’t, my guess is the players will try to counter quickly, but I kinda doubt MLB comes back at that point. Then we do the several day shutdown thing again.
UPDATE (2:12pm ET): This would be the shortest spring training (and second offseason) ever:
MLB proposed spring games to begin on or about March 17 and regular season Opening Day to be on or about April 5
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 10, 2022
UPDATE (2:45pm ET): Like everyone else, we’re trying to ask around and get a sense of the vote. It really depends on whom you ask, which makes me think no one really has the WHOLE picture just yet. So take all positivity with a grain of salt.
While one agent says union “(yes) vote is not a slam dunk” and another concurs seeing a couple players saying the CBT is too low, vibe is still generally positive
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 10, 2022
I mean, we’re definitely in that “sentiment is shifting” phase of the reporting cycle, which I really hope is just nervousness from sources based on how close things seem. But it’s also possible that the “yes” votes were very eager to share quickly, so the cart got out ahead of the horse.
UPDATE (2:52pm ET): I trust this report, since Heyman is historically close with Scott Boras, who represents a disproportionate number of players on the board:
Union executive board appears to be voting against approval. Uncertain how this could affect full player vote.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 10, 2022
There are 38 total votes – 30 teams and 8 exec board – and you need 20 to pass. So the whole board being against is, well. Math.
UPDATE (3:15pm ET): The vote passes. Holy crap. Baseball is back.