PHILADELPHIA — MLB players and team owners aren’t just far apart on the specific proposals of ongoing labor talks. They also don’t have remotely the same view on the state of the game.
With the collective bargaining agreement expiring in less than five months, bargaining is in a grim state.
Speaking separately Tuesday morning with the Baseball Writers Association of America, MLB Players Association interim executive director Bruce Meyer and league commissioner Rob Manfred detailed two very different assessments of the sport’s health.
Meyer pointedly said that management has spent the last several years “selling negativity” to fans in pursuit of measures such as a hard salary cap, heightened restrictions on amateur entry into the sport, and strict limitations on free-agent contracts.
“The supposed stewards of the game have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince fans that they don’t have hope, that they shouldn’t have hope, or that the product that they’re paying to consume in record numbers is somehow broken,” Meyer said of the league. “I think it’s perverse.”
Manfred, however, said that after seeing positive results from recent changes such as the pitch clock and automatic ball-strike (ABS) system, more action is required, and that fan input is directly influencing its labor proposals to the union.
“Momentum in the game is a great thing. We got that momentum by listening to our fans. And the best way to lose momentum is to stand still,” Manfred said. “We’re doing exactly the same thing that we did with the rule changes. And what fans in a number of our markets are telling us, better half of them, is that there’s a lack of competitive balance in the game. Everything we’ve proposed is focused on addressing that fan concern.”
The darkening labor situation is looming over a sport that, at least for now, is indeed enjoying continued increases in attendance and viewership, and rising fan popularity for its top talents.
Cap Mechanics
This round of labor bargaining has taken on a far more public tenor than in previous years, with both sides speaking openly and often about it and also pushing their viewpoints on social media. The league has even initiated a “Level the Field” public awareness campaign around its supposed need for a salary cap.
Meyer said a fast-changing media landscape is responsible for much of that shift in the level of disclosure.
“We’re in a different world now,” he said. “Before, there weren’t as many [media] outlets, there weren’t as many writers, and there wasn’t as much social media. But in this round of bargaining, my view is that the more information that is out there, the better.”
As that happens, Meyer remains insistent that a salary cap—which the MLBPA has staunchly opposed for decades—remains fundamentally bad for players, calling it “subsidized mediocrity” for team owners.
“All my years of experience in this tells me that these systems are really, really bad for players—now and in the future,” Meyer said. “The history in those [cap] systems, every one, it’s gotten worse [for players]. Once they get into it, they never get out of it. And the history in every one of the other sports is that once the players get in, the owners will lock them out repeatedly until they get the player share further down. In football, players started at 64% [of revenue]. Now it’s 48%. Basketball and hockey were at 57%. Now they’re at 50%.”
Not surprisingly, Manfred has a very different view, and has consistently pointed to the relative ineffectiveness of other measures such as revenue sharing and luxury taxes to curb payroll disparity.
“I believe that in order for this game to reach its full potential, we need to continue to address the concerns our fans have, particularly the concerns that go to the core of what we’re about, which is competitive balance,” Manfred said. “It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that [payroll] gap has the same opportunity to win as the top.”
Still Early
Meyer did offer a glimmer of hope, given that the current labor deal expires Dec. 1.
“We will do a deal eventually. We’re still in the early stages, and I remain hopeful and optimistic that we will get there, sooner rather than later,” Meyer said.
On this particular point, Manfred actually agreed.
“I am still an optimist when it comes to collective bargaining,” he said. “I truly believe that if people engage in the process, you find ways to do things.”
Meyer, however, also pointed to what sees as an effort already underway by management to split players into factions.
“This is not unique. This is how they try to win,” Meyer said of management. “But in baseball, it’s never worked, and I don’t believe it ever will.”
