Bud Selig likes the current relationship between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA, the players’ union.
Major League Baseball and its players’ union will begin contract talks soon with none of the rancor and lockout threats that are plaguing the NFL and NBA.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig offered a rosy picture of the economics of the coming seasons on Thursday and praised the “constructive relationship” that his staff has formed with the union.
Selig and Steinbrenner were the last of the owners around from the reserve clause era. The work stoppages of the early 1990s was the last gasp of that group of dinosaurs, who due to their longevity held a lot of power. None of today’s owners know anything but free agency and arbitration, so they don’t feel they’ve lost anything. While I’m sure both sides might like to see some rule changes to these features, I don’t believe there will be another fight over whether they should exist.
So the issues of contention will be drug testing, which seems pretty settled, and money distribution. I suspect the union will try to get MLB to raise the percentage of revenue going to players. Look for a big raise in the minimum salary, and some way to encourage small market teams to spend revenue sharing.
The good relationship between the two parties is one of the big positives of the Selig era, even though it started off very rocky with the 1994 strike.
When union leaders and management have a cozy relationship, it’s the workers who get the shaft.
With owners reluctant to sign players who reach the age of 30 to big contracts, which is when most players become FA, claiming steroids allowed players to play longer and testing means this will no longer hold true, and with players entering MLB at an older age, it seems the players should be lobbying for a shortening of the 6 years to become a FA. If all players reached FA at 28 for example, they would all be eligible for that big contract.
Raising the minimum does little for the average player. While 500 K or more sounds like a lot, most players only make this for a few years and many of these do not even make it until their arbitration years. Considering the fact many players languish in the minors for years before their cup of coffee, and considering that the average work life is 45 years, that minimum at the MLB level does not go a long way.
Trying to force teams or motivate teams to spend money of FA is dumb. The reason is because it is a dumb way for a 75 W team to try and improve (only makes sense for 85-90 W teams). They are better off spending it on young players in Latin America and draft picks. But in an interesting contradiction, MLB pressures teams not to exceeed bonus guidelines, and their pressure is mainly based on promising to keep revenue sharing in place, while teams like the Red Sox ignore these guidelines.
It woudl be best for FA signing if there was more parity and more teams where just a few wins away from making the playoffs. But not sure it is in MLB’s best interest for parity, and these rules/guidelines suggest they know it. Imagine the loss in MLB revenues if the big market teams all had down years for several years, while teams like the Royals, Rays and Indians took their place.
The MLBPA should understand that the Red Sox and Yankees can only overpay so many FA per year. But maybe the MLBPA leaders don’t want to rock the boat since they have a pretty good thing going.
The players for the most part are ignorant, and agents who know better prefer the current system. 5% of a 300 million dollar contract is better than 5% of 20 contracts which total 300 million. Lot more work and expense in making 15 million doing 20 contracts than 1.