MLB Lockout Negotiation Week: Notes from Saturday

Reportedly, MLB and the MLBPA will meet every day this week in an attempt to come to an agreement before a self-imposed February 28^th deadline to ensure the season starts as scheduled on March 31^st.

In an attempt to cover the daily happenings, here are updates from Saturday:

Players reportedly made a comprehensive offer to the league on Saturday, much like the league did on February 12^th. The league was looking forward to this in order to get a better idea of what the players wanted and where they could meet, but based on all reports, it didn’t matter much.

It doesn’t seem as if the players were the only side to propose something, as reports have offers from the league as well.

I am slowly starting to lose the will to cover these daily proceedings, and it seems sentence structure may have been the first to go. So, here is a quick recap on updates to proposals as we’ve already known them, covering both sides:

• Teams agreed to at least a part of the players service-time manipulation proposal—allowing rookies who finish first or second in Rookie of the Year voting without a full year of service to be credited with a full year, as long as they were a Top-100 prospect
• Both sides agreed to make the lottery six teams, but it’s unclear where that even stands now, as the league tried to tie this to a 14-team playoff, something the union had not agreed to
• Players lowered their Super 2 threshold from 75% of players between two and three years of service to 35%
• Players trimmed $2 million per year off their Competitive Balance Tax threshold from 2023 to 2025
• The league added $1 million to their CBT threshold in 2023
• The league lowered the tax rates for exceeding the CBT for all three tiers: 50% to 45%, 75% to 62%, and 100% to 95%
• The union withdrew its proposal to take $30 million out of revenue sharing, but kept a piece that provided monetary incentives from central revenue for small market teams to grow local revenue, something we haven’t heard up until now
• As covered yesterday, the league is asking for the right to implement rule changes after just 45 days, down from a year
• The sides agreed to limit optional assignments to five per year, up from the four the union was proposing and back on the table for the owners, who removed it when they took their Domestic Reserve List ball home
• The league is proposing making the Oakland A’s a revenue sharing recipient again, and the players are willing to agree to that

The two sides will meet again on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Also, totally unrelated, but Kiley McDaniel reported teams are making an attempt to hide Rule 5 eligible players from scouts, something I know many Pittsburgh Pirate fans are worried about:

Sources: Multiple MLB clubs have notified rival clubs that their complexes are closed to scouts until MLB camp starts or Rule 5 draft occurs/is canceled. Sources expect more teams to follow suit. Execs tell me the motivation is to keep Rule 5 eligible players from being scouted.

— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) February 26, 2022

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