Negotiations Between MLBPA and MLB In Turmoil

After the MLB and the MLBPA met on Tuesday, there was a small hint of optimism amongst the whole community that baseball may be returning sometime soon. Jon Heyman reported that more meetings were to come soon, potentially as early as Friday or the following Monday. The focus being topics of drug policies as well as international play.

However, since Tuesday, it's become apparent that the negotiations between MLB and the players had taken a turn for the worst.

On Thursday, the league went back on their word by refusing to make a counteroffer to the players, instead, they filed a request for a federal mediator to step in to help the negotiations move along.

Late into Thursday night, there was speculation that the players would decline the request, which is what happened on Friday.

A statement from the MLBPA reads, "After consultation with our executive board, and taking into account a variety of factors, we have declined this request."

A spokesman from MLB was quick to issue a response to the association, highlighting that the early parts of the season are rapidly approaching and that it is time to get assistance from a third party.

Ending their statement with, "MLB remains committed to offering solutions at the table and reaching a fair agreement for both sides."

Association representative Max Scherzer tweeted a rebuttal to the league arguing that mediation isn't needed as what the association has offered is "fair for both sides", later adding that the players want a system where the luxury tax doesn't act as limits for teams, up and coming players have the ability to know their worth, eliminating "service time manipulation" as well as team's intentionally losing for future success.

This isn't the first time that the players, and more specifically Scherzer have highlighted changes to the competitive balance in the league, which is the main objective of the luxury tax. In Dec. 2021, Scherzer explained that the players wanted changes to be made so that the league will become more competitive with this being a core argument. As he put it, "When we don’t have that [competition], we have issues.”

The league has yet to reply to Scherzer, however, it's clear that any progress that has been made has been ground to a halt by the league's decision to request mediation. With Spring Training closing in within two weeks, the possibility of teams reporting to their respective grounds is fleeting.

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