Due to federal law, Major League Baseball cannot use any player’s likeness. If you visit the league’s website, you’ll notice empty silhouettes where headshots used to be. It’s a bit jarring to look at it, and many players are using these open silhouettes as their new social media avatars. A display of solidarity among the union.
The players messaging from negotiations has been consistent. They are most concerned about the competitive state of the league - or put in another way - the number of rebuilding teams. Then there is the path to free agency for players. A significant sticking point in these conversations might be the most contentious in negotiations that led MLB to enter a lockout.
Evan Drellich of The Athletic learned about what MLBPA proposed to the owners of revamping the path to free agency for players.
The Players Association is trying to pave a path for players reaching free agency in just five seasons. That path seems to be for those players who are called up at a later age—for example, Gavin Sheets of the White Sox, who made his league debut at age 25. Under the recently expired CBA, Sheets wouldn’t be a free agent until after the 2027 season when he turns 31 years old. Under the Players Association proposal, if Sheets is a regular for the White Sox for the next four seasons, he’ll be a free agent one year earlier for meeting both the age requirement and years of service.
While it works great for someone like Sheets, this proposal has little impact on someone like Andrew Vaughn, who made his MLB debut a day before his 23rd birthday. Vaughn wouldn’t meet the age requirement to become a free agent, so the White Sox would still have six years of control.
It’s a model that doesn’t work for all players, but it does aid those like Gavin Sheets or Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets. McNeil made his MLB debut at age 26, and the Mets still have two more arbitration seasons after 2022, even though McNeil would be in his early 30’s. Instead of waiting until after the 2024 season to become a free agent, McNeil would be a free agent after the 2023 season.
One fewer year of control doesn’t seem a big deal, but evidently, it is to the owners. Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to the media yesterday and was quite adamant about not liking the player’s proposal.
Manfred comes off base when saying players who leave teams are fans’ most negative reaction. Especially when those who live in Iowa are blacked out from watching six teams (including the White Sox), and it appears that both Oakland and Tampa are going to wave goodbye to their teams as they relocate. Making it very difficult for millions of people to watch your sport seems like the most significant source of negativity.
Manfred’s retort goes back to the playbook of how the league has to be mindful of the small-market teams. About how devastating it would be for fans to watch players leave after just five seasons. But we see teams often sign their star players to contract extensions like the always poor Tampa Bay Rays did when they inked Wander Franco to an 11-year deal.
Also, the whole “small-market” angle is getting harder to buy when Forbes this past March had every MLB team except Miami valued at $1 Billion or more. The Marlins are valued at $990 million, so they barely missed the mark, but there’s a chance when Forbes updates their list in Spring 2022, every MLB team will be worth at least $1 Billion.
It seems that if teams still wanted to have six years of control, they would just call up players sooner under this proposal. Or, if a particular player is struggling, they send them back down to the minors to stop the service clock. Prevent players from reaching that five years of service before turning 29.5 years old.
Max Scherzer told The Athletic that “Unless this CBA completely addresses the competition (issues) and younger players getting paid, that’s the only way I’m going to put my name on it.”
It’s early, but after day one of the lockout, it’s apparent that the two parties are not budging from their stance on free agency. We’ll see which side blinks first on this matter.
