MLB News: 'Little Progress' Made in Latest CBA Bargaining Session

The first bargaining session in February between MLB and the MLBPA took place on Tuesday. The “heated” 90-minute session bore little progress according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The meeting between the Major League Baseball Players Association and MLB is over. Little progress was made. The on-time opening of spring training at this point is in grave danger and, frankly, would take a miraculous deal coming together to rescue. A delay feels inevitable.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 1, 2022

The Athletic’s Evan Drellich provided additional commentary on what was discussed

Today’s 90-minute meeting between MLB, MLBPA was heated. Some owners and players participated. The MLBPA made moves in two areas: service-time manipulation, and pre-arb bonus pool (dropped request from $105 million to $100 million). TBD when next core economics meeting will be.
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 1, 2022

MLB and the MLBPA do agree on the idea of utilizing a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players. At it’s core, the pool would serve as a way to increase the compensation for younger players who have have 0-3 years of MLB service time. The two parties vastly disagree on who should qualify for those dollars and how much they should receive.

On other proposal the MLBPA modified, service-time manipulation, union dropped the number of players who would be awarded a full year of service time. Previous proposal (below) was to give service to players in top 30 or top 10 by WAR depending on position. Now: top 20, or top 7 pic.twitter.com/cSbTgHxj48
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 1, 2022

It appears the other topic addressed was service-time manipulation. The MLBPA is trying to mitigate a team’s ability to get an extra year out of players before they hit free agency. Under the current system, top prospects brought up in late-April do not accrue a full year of service time. Meaning, teams have the player for seven seasons, instead of six, on the cheap.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like MLB and the MLBPA are anywhere close to completing a new CBA.