The Athletic’s Evan Drellich wrote an article which the headline writer titled: How MLB players won, and why it also feels like they could have won more. Drellich points out how in the 26 years since the last labor dispute that cause MLB games to be missed, that owners in all of the major U.S. sports had beaten their players in labor disputes. He then went on to list how the players had won this battle against MLB owners:
So it is pretty remarkable that in 2022, baseball players not only went on the offensive, but actually left a stoppage with more than they arrived with, not less. The $20 million increase in the competitive balance tax from 2021 to 2022, now starting at $230 million this season, is the largest increase ever. The $129,500 increase in the minimum salary, up to $700,000 for this year, is also the largest year-over-year jump. The pre-arbitration bonus pool amounts to $250 million in new money over the course of the deal alone.
Drellich then went on to suggest ways they might have done better, including a mention of the goals that MLBPA started with before the lockout even happened.
You’re never going to get all of the things on your wish list when negotiations start but if you look at the players’ initial demands and then what they got – well, it’s hard to think of this as a win. And you don’t need to take my word for it – the players’ Executive Committee unanimously voted against the agreement. One could say that was a publicity stunt. Or, one could say that the players closest to the action didn’t feel like this was the best deal available.
As a baseball fan, I’m glad that they came to an agreement where it looks like few – likely even no – games are lost. But as a baseball fan who also cares about the long-range health of the game, we still have the same problems that existed before. There are no real incentives for owners to field a competitive team and nothing was done to help the “middle class” players, to name just two issues remaining.
We shouldn’t expect the MLBPA to advocate for those not in their membership. But nothing in this agreement addresses the conditions of minor league players. And the owners are angling to institute an international draft, essentially doing away with the one place where some form of free agency exists for young players. And with a straight face they offer to eliminate draft pick compensation in return. Let’s see – eliminate choice for hundreds of (future) players per year in exchange for freer movement for roughly 30 players.
The deal is for five years. So, following the 2026 season we’re going to be in the same place. Drellich talked about gains in labor negotiations being incremental. But one can’t help but wonder if that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The players can point to tangible gains, those in the quoted piece near the beginning of this article. But it still feels like “Hooray for me, to heck with everyone else.”
Back in 1981, the players went on strike and it was a little bit different then. In his book, Marvin Miller called that strike, “the most principled strike I’ve ever been associated with. Many of the players struck not for a better deal for themselves but for a better deal for their colleagues, and for the players who would be coming into baseball in the future…There were veterans on every team who remembered how it used to be and the role of union solidarity in changing things.”
Aside from Miller no longer being with us, the big difference is that the players in 1981 were willing to miss games and paychecks to get what was fair for players both now and in the future. Maybe what happened between players and owners in 2020 and 2022 will help them be more determined when it’s time for the next CBA and we can see more than incremental changes in big-picture items.
Big relief. It appears I really don’t give a damn about the money. I care only for the leather ball and glove, the wood bats, the cotton uniforms and square bases, the chalk on the field.
When we close our eyes for the last time, we will have been thinking about days on the field, on past glory rounding the bases (real or imagined), and about the elation we felt when seeing our well-struck ball land on the green grass…
“Let’s play some dad-gum baseball!”
I read today that 5 of the 8 players on the executive committee are clients of Scott Boras, and the article suggested that it was the influence of Boras that pushed the committee against the deal mainly because Boras did not like the competitive balance figures.
“But as a baseball fan who also cares about the long-range health of the game, we still have the same problems that existed before.”
In the eyes of the players/owners there is no problem because as long as the revenue and growing and flowing, which it has. Competitive balance isn’t a problem because everyone is making money. Some rule changes may cause some whining amongst some fans, but revenues don’t dip, so there’s no deterrent to doing them. And who do we have to blame for that? Ourselves.
We’re the ones that keep pumping money into the system, no matter what. Mets fans hated the Wilpons. Yet we still funded them billions of dollars per year. Franchises that keep losing for years on end? Fans still fork over oodles of cash. Don’t like the 3 batter rule / DH? It won’t stop those same fans from buying jerseys/merchandise.
If we as fans want to see changes that we actually want to see, we need somehow start hitting them where it hurts, their pocketbooks, which is harder than ever because such a large portion of revenue is now derived through corporations (thru tv deals, ads, sponsorships). Even a simple boycott of not going to the ballparks is not enough to make a dent. It has to be a long term boycott of choking off revenue from all sources for someone to realize that the way they operate isn’t what fans want to see. But i don’t see fans having the resolve to do that so we’re stuck with the status quo for the foreseeable future
Sports are entertainment, but they are also a vice. While some of us grey beards don’t care for some of the evolution in the game, and MLB has lost status to the NFL and NBA, especially among youth, the revenues continue to grow. The soon to be closer marriage to another vice, gambling, will almost certainly insure continued revenue growth and plenty of future fans.
Regarding this deal, it did address some issues beyond money, and hopefully no lost games will keep enough peace to allow management and labor to implement improvements along the way before 2026. This is an uber competitive world, but with no lost games I will consider the sport and the fans as the winners, and with the exception of some people in Florida and Arizona, those working indirectly as well as directly with baseball as winners. And we need as many wins as possible nowadays.
I get TJ’s feelings, but a few years now I don’t give a crap about the economics of baseball. While I have an opinion (I guess there’s a saying that everyone has one of those), it has become apparent to me that players don’t give a snot about the fans. Their pay is guaranteed and it’s all about getting every possible penny. It’s the owners that actually need the fans more and care about the fans more because they actually need them more.