Major League Baseball made its latest CBA proposal to the Players Association on Thursday afternoon. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported specific details of the league’s proposal, which would be contingent on implementing MLB’s desired cap/minimum system. The most notable development is that the league wants to implement two offseason “quiet periods” for free agency. The first would cover all of November and prohibit free agents from signing with any team other than their current one until the opening Monday of the Winter Meetings. All teams could still negotiate with players and agents during that window, but the only signings that could be made official are re-signings. Teams would be allowed to finalize trades. Free agency would officially open at the Winter Meetings and last two weeks. Shortly before Christmas, there would be a moratorium on all MLB transactions until early February. MLB framed this as a entertainment measure that would create something of a trading bonanza in mid-December. In fact, that’s common in other leagues that have a cap/min cap system. Teams have a narrow spending range they must hit, which incentivizes them to complete their offseason work as quickly as possible. The second halves of those sports’ offseasons tend to be dead, but there’s a reasonable argument that centralizing all activity in early winter would be more entertaining for fans. MLB has not said this should also push players into a narrow signing window that could skew leverage toward clubs in negotiations. Even in a no-holds-barred offseason, free agent prices tend to fall the most during the winter. Unsigned players often feel more pressure than teams as the regular season approaches. Banning all free agent activity in January could increase pressure on mid-level free agents to sign by Dec. 21 and avoid entering the dead period without a job. Needless to say, MLBPA CEO Bruce Meyer rejected the idea out of hand. The Players Association maintains that it strongly opposes a salary cap, so it will not seriously consider any proposal from the league that is conditional on the salary cap at such an early stage in the negotiations. “MLB expressly conditioned these proposals on players agreeing to a salary cap system, which would dramatically reduce overall player compensation, eliminate fully guaranteed contracts through escrow, and turn back the clock on players’ fundamental rights,” Meyer said as part of a statement (aired by ESPN’s Jeff Passan). “His latest proposals regarding free agency would eliminate player rights by establishing an artificial free agency window, subject to a salary cap, which would reduce player influence and create a game of musical chairs pitting player against player.” MLB spokesman Glen Caplin reiterated the league’s support for a cap: “A cap and floor system would unlock additional opportunities to improve the game for players and fans, creating more roster stability, getting top players to the major leagues more quickly and accelerating the pace of the offseason,” Caplin said. The league’s proposal also seeks to minimize roster moves during the season. MLB proposed requiring teams to name their active 26-man rosters for the entire week each Monday. They could still make midweek changes in response to injuries, bereavement/paternity leaves, waiver claims, etc. However, there would be far fewer optional assignments and withdrawals. Active rosters would still be limited to 26 players, but the league proposed again allowing teams to carry 14 pitchers under this setup, since teams would not have the same flexibility to call up fresh arms from Triple-A. The injured list minimums, currently set at 10 days for position players and 15 days for pitchers, would change to periods of one and two weeks, respectively. This would partially address a concern of the MLBPA: teams opting for a pitcher the day after logging a heavy workload that makes them unavailable. The union proposed that pitchers who are optioned after meeting certain workload criteria receive service time and a major league salary during their first four days in the minors. MLB also proposed a fundamental change to the Rule 5 draft. The league would expedite players’ eligibility for Rule 5, but allow select players to be transferred to the minor leagues during their first season. Currently, teams need to have Rule 5 picks on their MLB roster or injured list for the entire first year to earn their long-term contract rights. This would make it much easier for teams to keep their Rule 5 picks, as they would only need to keep them on the 40-man roster instead of in the majors. On the one hand, that would go against the main point of Rule 5 of giving locked-down prospects opportunities in the big leagues. However, there is also an argument that it would help a greater number of players by increasing the number drafted and forcing teams to be more aggressive in adding prospects to their own 40-man rosters rather than leaving them exposed in Rule 5. Readers can find more details of the league’s proposal in Feinsand’s column and in this summary by Evan Drellich of The Athletic. Like all early proposals from both sides, it is essentially public relations. The parties are not seriously engaged in negotiations at this point (they are not even operating within the same core economic framework), so they really only serve to illuminate each side’s respective talking points. The current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, before the inevitable offseason lockout.
