2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[gunnar hendershow]

Yeah the most popular team in the entire sport has had a DH for 50 years. It's certainly not what's driving people away from baseball. Curmudgeonly old fans who plead for a return of "olden time baseball" however...

[MalaCloudy Black]

Rob Manfred's what's driving people away from baseball, with his dipshit ass ideas.

[The Buscher]

Meanwhile, just two days after Manfred stated that the league’s latest “improved” offer will hopefully clear the path to a deal...today’s meeting between the league and union lasted less than an hour with the union walking away unimpressed.

Other than universal DH it sounds like there’s barely any negotiating actually happening in these meetings.  It’s just one side laying out a proposal that makes the other side get up and walk out.

Everyone knew the owners were going to stall as long as possible, and they’re the real reason for the mess the game is in.  The players, to this point, still show no signs of weakening and a few have openly come out and said that as much as they want to play, they realize that losing games is better for them than being locked into another lousy deal for 5-10 years.

And so here we are with neither side showing any real sense of urgency with maybe a week or two away from having to cancel Opening Day.  The biggest losers are, as always, the fans.

[The Buscher]

Next meeting between the owners and union scheduled for tomorrow, where the union will be making a new CBA proposal.

Exclusive footage from the owners' dress rehearsal addressing the proposal:

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Tomorrow morning my Nashville Orioles anxiety may finally be cured.

 

[The Buscher]

Yeah, the Mayor showing up to an announcement about the team moving would make it even more of a fuck you.  I'd assume a lease extension.

[gunnar hendershow]

51 minutes ago, CM Busch said:

Yeah, the Mayor showing up to an announcement about the team moving would make it even more of a fuck you.  I'd assume a lease extension.

Some people think it may only be stadium enhancements - specifically a sportsbook on site. But I think Larry "I love gambling" Hogan would be there for that one.

It definitely feels like a lease extension. Plus a ton of improvements to the stadium & surrounding area. The Orioles have long wanted more control over the stadium facility itself, while the city has basically been under fire for letting the Inner Harbor and stadiums area crumble a bit over the last decade. So I'm expecting since the mayor is there it's going to be a two-for-one deal. Lease + all sorts of big changes.

[The Buscher]

Meanwhile in today's negotiating session, the union was presenting a counter-proposal to the league's latest offer from Saturday.  Reportedly, the union's proposal was barely changed from the one they presented to the league over a week ago.

Neither sign showing any real signs of budging at all.  Jeff Passan thinks meetings will finally pick up this week as both sides have been finger-pointing that the other side wants to wait until the deadline before actually negotiating.  Well, we're at that point now so if they don't meet more and show any urgency we might be missing games a lot later than Memorial Day even.

[gunnar hendershow]

I have a growing hunch the players will get absolutely destroyed in these negotiations. Owners have been preparing for years to shut it all down and just wait until the players union cracks.

[GhostMachine]

Ryan Zimmerman is retiring.

[gunnar hendershow]

Doesn't sound like it's a lease.

 

[MalaCloudy Black]

So the Nashville Orioles are back on the table?

[The Buscher]

I’d still be surprised if the O’s left but you just know that years of tanking to rebuild the farm would actually bear fruit if they left.

[gunnar hendershow]

2 hours ago, CM Busch said:

I’d still be surprised if the O’s left but you just know that years of tanking to rebuild the farm would actually bear fruit if they left.

It feels like it's a very under the radar situation because of how bad the stadium issues are with Tampa Bay and Oakland, but the team has an old owner who's handed the franchise off to his kids without defined loyalties. Peter Angelos was never going to move a team out of Baltimore because he has so much professional and investment interest in the city. However it feels very real given the lease situation with the stadium a group from, say, Nashville could swoop in and buy the team under cover of darkness basically. 

Given Rob Manfred's attitude as commissioner it's likely he'd rather not have a team in Baltimore and a team in Washington. Similar to how he can't wait to get the A's out of Oakland.

[The Buscher]

Some new details have surfaced around a side meeting between MLB and MLBPA's lead negotiators after the brief 15 minute meeting yesterday:

-Union has told MLB they will not agree to expanded playoffs this year without a full 162 game season (bear in mind, expanded playoffs is the league's #1 priority)
-Union has also said that they will not sign off on something that doesn't pay the players for a full 162 game season even if games are lost
-In turn, MLB has also expressed that they have more wiggle room on expanding the CBT and paying younger players, the former especially is a point MLB was claiming was a non-negotiable

And on top of that, several owners are expected to fly in to New York in the coming days to get involved in negotiations directly, and by Monday the thought is that there will, at last, be daily negotiations with the deadline fast approaching.

There are so many egos involved that I can't get my hopes up too much, but I'm seeing at least a glimmer of hope that maybe they'll figure something out and play a full season.  Should they come to agreement, the next month will be among the wildest in baseball history with hundreds of free agents needing to find jobs and go straight to camp.

[The Buscher]

 

[MalaCloudy Black]

57 minutes ago, CM Busch said:

 

Was this tweet deleted? It won't load.

[gunnar hendershow]

Is this about Passan delivering the truth about "boneless wings"?

[The Buscher]

Guess it did get deleted for some reason.

 

[The Buscher]

These last two days are the first time the negotiations are being taken "seriously" with far more people involved and a deadline of the 28th in everybody's mind.

That said, the first two days produced very little progress, with each side making only small tweaks to an offer that is still very far apart.  If they're ultimately going to end up "meeting in the middle", it's going to take one side making an enormous jump from where they are now and no side wants to be the first to do it.  Oh and they haven't even talked luxury tax, arguably the biggest issue.  AT the current pace there's no way they'll be done by the 28th.

Not to mention, "the middle" from where it is now would still be a clear win for the owners as they had way more to give going into this, yet they're unwilling to make the first big jump because they are obviously greedy sons of bitches.

But realistically, it was always impossible for the players to make up all the ground lost over 25 years in a single CBA.  The best they could hope for is an improvement, which the current middle still would be even if it's not great.  The players need to assess realistically if they can get anything more than this because if they wait it out, miss game checks, AND still end up just getting the current midpoint after all of this it'll be an even worse look for them.