MLB Lockout Off-Season 2021

[Ron Madden]

[QUOTE]Bob Nightengale
@BNightengale

The negotiations appear now to be over for the day with no more scheduled before the 11:59 deadline and likely lockout.

"Done for the Day,'' as negotiations end nine hours before the CBA deadline.
The players have been told that negotiations are over before the deadline..
The union now bracing for the lockout[QUOTE]

Evan Drellich
@EvanDrellich

A morning meeting between MLB and the MLBPA gave way to a smaller sidebar meeting. That smaller meeting lasted under 10 minutes. Owners have now left the players hotel. An MLB spokesman, walking out with the owners, declined to say whether the owners would return.

The MLBPA has been told negotiations are over for the day. At midnight eastern, the owners can lock out the players.v

[Strikes Out Looking]

I'm not a labor lawyer, but I think the owners are playing checkers here because they are pre-wiring a lockout and an impasse - by not going to the deadline, they appear to be providing evidence that they aren't serious. I don't know how that will play out down the road, but I do know that if the season is impacted, they would then be in line to have to pay lots of $$$ for their actions (i.e. not really trying to come to an agreement).

[Ron Madden]

MLB never made a proposal during the three-day negotiations in Dallas on the CBT, revenue sharing service time manipulation, salary arbitration eligibility or the reserve system, according to several familiar with the union.

The persons spoke to USA TODAY Sports the condition of anonymity due to the ongoing nature of negotiations.

The union made a proposal on Tuesday, but according to persons familiar with the union, MLB refused to make a counter-offer unless it agreed to a binding offer to drop their proposals for free agency, revenue sharing, and service time manipulation.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sport...on/8823798002/

[Bob Sheed]

A couple gems from TML this morning...
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/spo...ow/8820290002/

If baseball activities cease, how will Reds fans know?

The collective bargaining agreement will expire without a new deal, and all baseball activities will cease. You could say that means little to the Reds, whose baseball activities lately have consisted of showing good players the door. But it’s bad for the game.

and my favorite:

I no longer have any use for the Small Market Argument perpetuated by owners whose pockets are zippered. If you can’t afford to field a decent team, sell the team.

also:

That said, Baseball’s economic divide is real. So is tanking, so are the Pirates, whose owner sees shared revenues as his personal ATM.

Cough. How much was that Reds tv deal worth again?

[15fan]

If you exclude the MLB braintrust, you could put any two people in the universe, even if they know nothing about baseball, into a room and they could hammer out an agreement that’s fair to both sides in about 15 minutes.

[FlightRick]

You don't even need 2 people. Just make me King of Baseball, and I'll fix it with half my brain tied behind my back.

The problem is that "fair to both sides" isn't what either side wants. Both sides want to win. And as the saying goes, the only good negotiation is one where nobody's happy with the final compromise (i.e. both sides "lose"). Thus, we end up with this idiotic dance where fans have no problem envisioning a quick resolution, but it never takes shape, because billionaires vs. millionaires is a fight that must be fought to the very last penny, apparently.

[Ron Madden]

The weeks leading up to the winter meetings, which were scheduled to begin Monday in Orlando but will be canceled, are usually slow for player movement. And the movement has crawled at an even slower pace in recent winters. This year, teams were motivated by the deadline of the looming lockout.

“This was actually kind of fun,” Scherzer said. “I’m a fan of the game and watching everyone sign right now and to see teams actually competing in this timely fashion, it’s been refreshing because we’ve seen free-agent freezes for the last several offseasons. It’s been frustrating as a fan to watch that like ‘When are these guys going to sign?’”

After a busy few days, baseball is lining up for a quiet winter. And no one is quite sure how long the silence will last.

“We have something in our rules that creates non-competitiveness,” said agent Scott Boras, who represents Scherzer and many top players including Bryce Harper. “It creates something that drives down fan interest. All of those things need to be addressed and addressed immediately because the whole integrity of the game needs to be back to where it was where there is an incentive to go to the ballpark and win everyday.”

After busy few days, baseball bracing for quiet winter as lockout looms
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb...BingNewsSearch

[mth123]

The problem is there are three sides, not two. There are the players, the large market owners and the small market owners. The small market owners want a Salary Cap and the players won't agree or complete revenue sharing and the large market owners won't agree. There are lots of other issues that are merely sub-issues of that main theme. To give the players what they want, the Snall market owners either can't compete or would need a lot more revenue sharing to be able to compete. The large market owners will lose a ton of franchise value if they share their local revenies equally with all 30 teams and the players won't agree to anything that allows the smaller market teams to compete without revenue sharing.

Its really the same issue that has been playing out since Free Agency began.

[Kinsm]

“Small market” owners are already getting enough revenue sharing to compete.

[mth123]

“Small market” owners are already getting enough revenue sharing to compete.

Only because the players aren't getting more of it as they should. Once the players get enough to be satisfied, I think the numbers will be too big for the smaller market owners. Less years of control, higher minimums, salary floors, aboliishing luxury tax and QOs with compensation, more money for the minor leagues, that will all hit smaller markets a lot harder than large markets.

[757690]

Only because the players aren't getting more of it as they should. Once the players get enough to be satisfied, I think the numbers will be too big for the smaller market owners. Less years of control, higher minimums, salary floors, aboliishing luxury tax and QOs with compensation, more money for the minor leagues, that will all hit smaller markets a lot harder than large markets.

If they add a salary floor, I am certain mid market teams will suddenly be able to handle the expanding costs. I think it's clear from their actions, that they choose when they want to compete.

[RedTeamGo!]

This league is so dumb

[Ron Madden]

Jon Heyman
@JonHeyman
Breaking: MLB owners vote unanimously to institute a lockout. It is expected to begin tomorrow but unclear what time.

[Wonderful Monds]

lol MLB.com and all the team sites have removed any and all traces of any active players

[757690]

A heartfelt, sincere letter from the commissioner

https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/a-...-baseball-fans