The initial trio of labor proposals from MLB team owners has been so extreme in the intended impact that it’s had a unifying effect on players, the MLB Players Association said.
Management’s latest offer, which would radically redefine the sport’s reserve system and limit free-agent contracts, completes an overarching set of starting bids from its side of the bargaining table. Among the key elements of ownership’s opening salvos:
The introduction of a hard salary cap and floor, with a 2027 team minimum set at $171.2 million, and a maximum of $245.3 million. The salary cap contemplates an even split of industry revenue between owners and players, but it’s also something that players are vehemently against, and have been for the union’s entire six-decade existence.
A dramatically retooled system for amateur players to become professionals, including a prohibition on drafting U.S.-born players younger than 20, the creation of a hard-slot system to assign fixed signing bonuses to draftees, and a reduction of the domestic draft from 20 rounds to 12.
A redesigned reserve system that would limit free-agent contracts for players switching teams to a maximum five-year, $202 million deal, and impose a six-year, $265 million limit for free-agent pacts involving players staying with their current team. All contract deferrals would also be outlawed.
