Negotiators for Major League Baseball and the players association are scheduled to meet again Monday after a session Thursday lasted only 15 minutes and underscored the gulf between the sides and the paucity of actual negotiating.
Starting Monday, the two sides will have one week to reach an agreement that preserves the scheduled Opening Day March 31. That timetable allows for two days for both sides to ratify an agreement and for a compressed spring training of 28 days.
AP Photo/John Raoux
Neither the rate nor movement of talks suggests such a quick resolution. At a time when pitchers and catchers should be in camp, little urgency is yet apparent. Five days after owners made a 130-page proposal, players made tweaks to two core economic items: arbitration eligibility and a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players.
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Until Thursday players had been asking to lower arbitration eligibility to two years of service. Since 2013 it has been set at three years plus the top 22% of service time players in the two-to-three class. Owners have consistently told players that lowering the arbitration threshold was a non-starter. On Thursday the players dropped their ask to include 80% of players in the two-to-three class. The proposal would cover about 128 so-called “Super Two” players, up from about 35.
Arbitration was a point of contention in the last lockout, in 1990. Players asked to drop the eligibility to include 50% of the two-to-three players. They won a 17% threshold. It took four subsequent CBAs for them to increase the bar from 17% to 22%.
The players’ other tweak increased the gap between the two sides on the issue of a bonus pool. The players had asked for a pool of $100 million that would go to 30 pre-arbitration players. The owners were at $15 million. The players asked Thursday for $115 million that would go to 150 players.
It was just the sixth meeting between the two sides since the owners instituted the lockout Dec. 2. The two sides are expected to discuss non-economic side issues Friday.
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