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As the 2021 Major League Baseball season winds down, so does the current collective bargaining agreement between the franchise owners and players. According to one report, the MLB is expected to make a proposal that would create a salary floor, meaning that each franchise would need to spend a certain amount of money on payroll each season. The string attached to this proposal, however, is going to be enough to send the Players’ Association off the deep end and start what is likely to be a cold, dark winter for Major League Baseball.
As reported by The Athletic, Major League Baseball is ready to impose a minimum salary requirement on all 30 franchises of $100 Million a season. The catch is that the luxury tax threshold would be lowered from the $210 Million it is this season to $180 Million in the first year of the new collective bargaining agreement. The logic (if you want to call it that) behind this idea is to help keep the game’s talented players on as many different teams as possible rather than letting franchises like the Los Angeles Dodgers stockpile stars while spending three, four or even five times as much on players as other teams do. Of course, since the idea is great for the owners and terrible for the players, the idea is expected to be received poorly by the Players’ Association.
Think about it this way: Kris Bryant, now of the San Francisco Giants, is going to be a free agent this offseason and is expected to receive lucrative contract offers. Under this proposed system, any team that was at or near the $180 Million luxury tax threshold would not just be paying his salary in order to sign him, but an extra amount to every other team in the league for going over the tax threshold. Not only does this remove teams from Bryant’s already limited list of options, but those teams are likely not going to need to pay Bryant his asking price to get over a salary floor, thereby dropping his overall value on the free agent market. It also means that his freedom as a “free agent” to play with whichever team he wants while making the money his talents would normally dictate is gone since he would be forced to choose between pay or location with little chance of getting both at the same time.
Clearly this proposal is awful for MLB players and the thought of being able to implement such an idea in one offseason is even worse. To illustrate this point: There are six MLB teams with projected payrolls between $180 and $205 Million, not to mention the Los Angeles Dodgers who have a projected $267+ Million payroll for 2021 … all of these teams would need to shed payroll under this new plan in as little as one offseason, flooding the market with high-priced talent that other teams would not be able to pay on their own if those seven teams don’t sTay over the luxury tax threshold.
So, if you were the Pirates, would you let a team dump an expensive player onto your roster knowing you can’t afford to pay that player; or would you let the Dodgers keep that player, collect your share of the luxury tax that is spread across the league, and invest in your own younger players or the free agents other teams can’t afford?
MLB needs to understand that it can’t follow the financial models of the NFL because their revenue streams are too different. Everyone of the 17 games each NFL team’s schedule is covered under a national television contract and provides enough money for teams to cover most of their payroll without opening their stadium gates or selling one hot dog. The rest of the NFL’s revenues are also pooled and shared evenly, keeping Green Bay on equal footing with New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago teams. MLB teams get their money from regional sports networks as well as a national deal, but the differences on the local level make the financial plan incompatible with having a salary cap or floor of any kind.
Unless Rob Manfred is ready to tell the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and both Chicago franchises that their income is going into a pot to be shared evenly across all of MLB, how the sport does business will be flawed from the start of every season, with this proposal only highlighting, not eliminating those disparities.
Say what you want about how badly the game of baseball is hurting itself on the field, but the true problems lie in the business of baseball off the field. That is something the owners are looking to fix this offseason, but their first idea on how to do so is awful, and is not likely to improve as the weather cools and the current CBA expires December 1st.
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MLB Expected To Make An Awful Proposal To Players | TooAthletic.com
The post MLB Expected To Make An Awful Proposal To Players appeared first on TOOATHLETIC TAKES.
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By: Rafael Thomas
Title: MLB Expected To Make An Awful Proposal To Players
Sourced From: tooathletic.com/mlb-expected-to-make-an-awful-proposal-to-players/
Published Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2021 22:22:56 +0000
