MLB’s Proposal to Eliminate QO, Deferred Compensation Not Fooling Players
I’ll keep this brief because the negotiations between owners and players on a new MLB collective bargaining agreement are still in the very early stage and really can’t be analyzed too deeply just yet. Or at least they shouldn’t be by a rube like me. That said, Thursday’s developments deserve a brief fly-by.
As shared on X by ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, the league has agreed to some of the union’s proposals regarding increases to minimum salaries and other changes to free agency. The minimum salary would increase to $1 million for players with two-plus years of service time, the qualifying offer system would be gone, and rookie deals would not last as long for some players.
“Today, in addition to proposing the largest ever increase in the minimum salary, earned by over half of MLB players, we accepted two landmark changes to free agency that have been in place for 50 years,” said MLB spokesman Glen Caplin. “We agreed to both the MLBPA’s proposal to provide earlier access to free agency, and their proposal to eliminate the qualifying offer system, a provision players view as a drag on free agency.
“We also proposed to eliminate deferred compensation and to create a new ‘Cornerstone Player’ provision similar to the NBA’s ‘Bird Rights’ to give every team a fair shot at retaining their fans’ favorite star players.”
At the same time, however, the league proposed a maximum contract length of five years for players moving to new teams or six years for those re-signing with the same team. There would be no deferred money either. My initial thought is that this was meant as an olive branch of sorts, albeit one the players would see more as a switch. Sure enough, their response indicates a strong disinclination to agree to some of the additional changes.
“After making a series of proposals to reduce player compensation by billions of dollars, eliminate fundamental rights with a salary cap, and destroy the amateur entry process, Major League Baseball and team owners are now attempting to distract from the true impact their plan would have on baseball,” read the MLBPA’s response. “These misleading offers are designed to look like ‘improvements’ but are of little or no value, given they are expressly conditioned on agreement to the league’s cap system which eliminates the free market, and ensures gains for one player only come at the expense of another.
“The league also introduced a litany of additional restrictions on player rights – limiting salaries, contract length, performance, award, and signing bonuses. While MLB claims to be acting in the interest of fans, their proposals thus far are entirely consistent with owners’ long-held goals: suppressing player salaries and maximizing club profits. Owners’ attempts to pit players against players are nothing new, but they’ve failed in the past and will fail again now, because PA members remain unified. We are committed to achieving a fair deal that protects the rights of all players, promotes competition, and leaves our game better for future generations.”
We’ve still got a very long time to go before any of this gets really real, but it doesn’t look like much progress is being made.
