2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[The Buscher]

The 28th was said to be a "soft" deadline. Not anymore, MLB has told the union officially that they will begin cancelling regular season games if no deal is reached by the 28th, that the games will not be made up and that they will not agree to any deal giving them a prorated 162 game pay. No deal by the 28th and the players lose checks, end of discussion.

Their latest proposal also came no closer to the players' asks. So it's a total power play, as expected, from the side that has the most money.

[gunnar hendershow]

1 minute ago, CM Busch said:

The 28th was said to be a "soft" deadline. Not anymore, MLB has told the union officially that they will begin cancelling regular season games if no deal is reached by the 28th, that the games will not be made up and that they will not agree to any deal giving them a prorated 162 game pay. No deal by the 28th and the players lose checks, end of discussion.

Their latest proposal also came no closer to the players' asks. So it's a total power play, as expected, from the side that has the most money.

Yeah but did you hear that Max Scherzer drove a Porsche to negotiations? That's exactly the same thing as Steve Cohen paying $8 million for a preserved shark.

[The Buscher]

30 minutes ago, damhausen said:

Yeah but did you hear that Max Scherzer drove a Porsche to negotiations? That's exactly the same thing as Steve Cohen paying $8 million for a preserved shark.

Speaking of Cohen, I assume MLB have been keeping him as far away from negotiations as possible and are glad he's not tweeted something to kill their negotiation position.  He just gave $43 million to Max Scherzer to pitch for his favorite team with all indications that he's going to chase even more big names when the lockout ends.  Dude is probably thinking "this is pennies to me, let's just get on with it".

[gunnar hendershow]

They're fighting over pocket lint as far as he's concerned.

He's since become incredibly cheap but when Peter Angelos bought the Orioles and the strike happened the following year he basically had a similar attitude. Just didn't see the point. He also had a pro-labor track record and would've refused to use scab players if it came to that.

[The Buscher]

I think Cohen, and the potential for other owners like him to come along, is a big reason owners are trying to tack draft pick penalties into the CBT now, knowing financial penalties alone won't curtail the spending.

The players are understandably pushing back on that.  CBT is probably the biggest issue of this whole negotiation and supposedly it's barely even been discussed yet.

[The Buscher]

 

[Lowerdeck]

 

[The Buscher]

Negotiations today, 2 days before the deadline, were by all accounts a complete disaster.  MLB laughed at a proposal from the players and then proceeded to offer them essentially the same plan they’ve been offering all along.  Players were said to be outraged at the offer, and league sources feel the chances of a deal by Monday are close to zero.

MLB is continuing to not negotiate in good faith, and are instead just waiting for the union to crack and accept a horrible CBA in a few months.

Screw a strike.  Players should organize a mass retirement on Monday.

[Krabby]

11 hours ago, CM Busch said:

Screw a strike.  Players should organize a mass retirement on Monday.

Contact The Rock and start the XLB! 

[The Buscher]

CBT remains the biggest issue by far and there is no sign the league is budging on their ask.  They want stiffer penalties, treating it even more like a salary cap.  I sure do love that after 20 years of sitting through horrible ownership, the Mets finally have a guy willing to treat them like a big market team just in time for the league to shut itself down trying to chop him down at the knees.

If the league gets their wish and has draft picks get forfeited, I cope Cohen flips the league the bird and signs Soto and Ohtani in a few years.  Go into Rams mode, fuck them picks.

[The Buscher]

Derek Jeter steps down as CEO of the Marlins effective immediately.

 

[The Buscher]

So the owners never intended on playing April baseball unless the union bent to all of their terms, and they were never going to negotiate a good faith agreement to start on time otherwise?  SHOCKER!

[The Buscher]

They worked to 2:30 AM and then extended the deadline to 5 PM.  Reason to be optimistic about a deal.  That said, Olney this morning said the owners are gonna make one more push for a 14 team playoff.

The players are right to be hesitant about it.  Devalues the regular season and gives less reason for teams to spend since half the league gets in.  If the players give that up they’d better be getting all of their other demands met.

[The Buscher]

A more detailed synopsis from yesterday's negotiations.

Yes, the owners mismanaged the entire lockout. Yes, the players deserve everything they're asking for. And yes, I've been staunchly pro-player all winter. But almost all of the movement yesterday was on the owners' side after the players called their bluff on cancelling games.

Thus far the players have won:

• Universal DH
• Eliminating draft pick compensation
• 20M increase on draft bonus pools
• Rocker rule to protect amateur draftees
• A cap on in-season options (previously unlimited, now 5 per year)
• A 12-team playoff (teams wanted 14 and might give even more today to try to get it)
• Maintaining status quo on CBT tax rates (owners wanted double)
• A draft lottery (agreed upon, just details to iron out)
• At least $25M in new bonuses for young players
• At least a $100K increase on the league min
• At least a 10-20M bump on the CBT
• Some safety mechanisms for service time manipulation

And several of those points stand to improve significantly after today's bargaining.

So far, the only thing the players have lost completely was an increase to Super Two eligibility, which I think was part of their strategy and they knew was never going to go up.

Prior to yesterday, any and all blame for game cancellation would have gone to the owners.  The owners were strategic or calculated or manipulative throughout this process. We can argue whether the players deserve more (they do) but at the end of the day, all signs point this new CBA is unquestionably already a massive win for the players, despite the owners holding all of the leverage so far.

Of course, if the owners show up today and pull an about-face and try to back out of some of this stuff, that's another story.  But based on the available information, if a deal doesn't materialize after all of this the players are probably going to be the primary target of blame in the public, and it would be tough to argue against that.

[gunnar hendershow]

Owners very much went in to this knowing what they were willing to give up. End of the day so much is superficial as long as they have the key drivers of revenue and increased team values in their hands. Which they basically do. So they might be baiting the union into overplaying its hand right now.

[MalaCloudy Black]

 

 

[The Buscher]

Enough reputable reporters were citing info from both sides of the aisle on stuff that was being moved around in the deal.  I'm not really buying the narrative that, suddenly, everything has collapsed and they were never close on anything at all.

This feels like 11th hour posturing, trying to get the other side to blink on something last minute.  You see it with sports deadlines all the time.  Last year the Mets and Lindor were like 2 years, $50+ million away on a contract and, supposedly, not even speaking an hour before the deadline.  Then a deal magically transpired.

Until a bluff is fully called and games actually get cancelled, I'd take any PR spin either side is trying to pull with a grain of salt.  If games are missed, the league will have a fun time trying to get fans back, especially the younger ones as their average fan age keeps going up and up.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I vote racquetball as the new America's pastime. 

[gunnar hendershow]

I'm voting for shuffleboard

[MalaCloudy Black]

5 minutes ago, damhausen said:

I'm voting for shuffleboard

Air hockey.