05/12/26 04:58:00
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05/12 16:24 CDT MLB players, owners start collective bargaining, 6 1/2 months
ahead of contract's expiration
MLB players, owners start collective bargaining, 6 1/2 months ahead of
contract's expiration
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --- Negotiators for baseball players and owners began what
figures to be lengthy and acrimonious collective bargaining negotiations
Tuesday to replace their labor contract that expires Dec. 1, with management
likely to propose a salary cap system the union has vowed never to accept.
An initial session of about two hours took place at the office of the Major
League Baseball Players Association, a five-minute walk from Major League
Baseball's headquarters in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center. The meeting lasted
about two hours and was scheduled for initial presentations from each side on
their view of the sport and its economics. No proposals were made.
Players who attended included Mets infielder Marcus Semien, a member of the
union's eight-man executive subcommittee, along with Mets teammates Clay
Holmes, David Peterson, Austin Slater and Sean Manaea. Several Detroit Tigers,
who were in town to play the Mets, also were at the meeting and additional
players joined via video conference.
"It's the first one I've been at, so I don't really have much to compare it
to," Holmes said. "It was just kind of initial meetings, first time the sides
were getting together and kind of sharing their thoughts on kind of where they
thought things were at and what they thought was best for kind of the game
moving forward."
The sport's five-year labor contract expires Dec. 1, and baseball Commissioner
Rob Manfred has said repeatedly that management prefers offseason lockouts to
in-season strikes, aiming to prevent the loss of regular-season games. Baseball
has not lost regular-season games to a work stoppage since a 7 1/2-month strike
in 1994-95 that caused the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years.
Talks for the last agreement began in April 2021 and ended with a deal on March
10, 2022 that preserved the 162-game schedule only after the sides bargained
past several deadlines and Manfred announced the cancellation of 184 games,
which were restored.
Bruce Meyer will lead negotiations for the union, as he did in 2021-22, but in
his new role as interim union head. He moved up from deputy director in
February after the forced resignation of Tony Clark, a former All-Star first
baseman who took over following the death of Michael Weiner in 2013.
Deputy commissioner Dan Halem heads MLB's negotiations team, as he did in talks
for the previous two agreements.
MLB and Meyer declined to comment on the session.
"I think just player engagement as a whole, it just seems like there's a lot of
it right now," Holmes said. "Guys are wanting to hear and guys are wanting to
be there and so, just to be able to kind of be there and pass along things that
you may see or learn or just have conversations there."
Some major league owners have said a salary cap system that also contains a
floor is needed and would improve the sport. MLB, unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL,
has not had a cap system, but since 2003 has had a luxury tax designed to slow
spending.
"When I talk to the players, I don't try to convince them that a salary cap
system would be a good thing," Manfred told the Baseball Writers' Association
of America last summer. "I identify a problem in the media business and explain
to them that owners need to change to address that problem. I then identify a
second problem that we need to work together and that is that there are fans in
a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem."
Restraints had not appeared to have had much impact on the Los Angeles Dodgers
and New York Mets in recent years. The Dodgers shattered MLB's spending records
with a combined $515 million in payroll and luxury tax last year en route to
their second straight World Series title, according to final figures compiled
by the commissioner's office, and Los Angeles is projected for the highest
total again in 2026. The ratio of the five highest spenders to the five lowest
increased from 3.6 in 2021 to a record-high 4.7 last year.
The union maintains a cap system decreases spending on players, while
management argues a cap and a floor would benefit most players.
Players increased their potential war chest of cash and investments ahead of
collective bargaining to $415 million heading into 2026. MLB also has been
accumulating cash ahead of bargaining, about $75 million per club in withheld
central fund distributions.
___
AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
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