It's Your Own Fault

When the MLB owners locked out the players nearly three months ago, they argued it was to "kickstart" negotiations and that there was still more than enough time to get a deal done without games being lost.  It's done anything but.  And now, we're looking at that exact possibility everyone feared becoming a reality--the cancellation of regular season games.  Which is just stupid and totally unnecessary.  It's also entirely the owners' fault.

Of course, if you're trying to "kickstart" negotiations, waiting six weeks between the start of the lockout and making an offer to the union isn't exactly the way to do that.  Especially when there's so much animosity between the two sides and they're so far apart on so many core issues.  Frankly, it was only when they put in the arbitrary deadline to preserve the 162-game season that the sides began doing something they should've been doing all along--spending all day at the bargaining table discussing the issues and exchanging proposals.

While they're inching closer to an agreement on some issues, they still haven't touched the big-ticket items!  So, no matter how "productive" the talks are, no real progress is gonna be made until there's movement on those.  And, barring a massive breakthrough, that ain't changing before the deadline.  Which will only add to the list of things the owners and players disagree about.

Frankly, the fact that they're far apart isn't much of a surprise.  Neither side trusts the other.  That was made painfully obvious during the negotiations over the abbreviated 2020 season, when the players essentially gave up and told the Commissioner's Office, "just tell us when the season starts and how long it is."

It's also painfully obvious what each side is trying to get out of the new CBA.  The last two CBAs have been incredibly owner-friendly, and they'd very much like the next one to be just as favorable.  The players, meanwhile, are unhappy with a number of things that they would like addressed, if not changed entirely.  Issues that the owners have entirely no interest in entertaining.

I'm not sure if it was Tom Verducci or Ken Rosenthal who summed up the negotiations in The Athletic, but his take was pretty spot on.  He laid blame completely on the owners (don't forget, a lockout is initiated by management, so the owners can lift it anytime they want) and described their position as offering scraps, then getting angry that the lowly serfs aren't willing to accept those scraps and are looking for more instead.

He's right.  This is entirely the owners' fault.  Not just because they initiated the lockout and arbitrarily imposed a deadline before regular season games are lost.  But because they're crying "poor" while acting like the players and baseball fans are stupid.  They're being greedy.  Plain and simple.  They already get a bigger slice of the pie than the players, and they're trying to make it even bigger while giving the players less.

Every proposal the owners make shows how little they care about the players' economic concerns.  It's true that they raise the amount they're offering the pre-arbitration bonus pool...by $5 million at a time.  Going from $10 million to $15 million when the players are looking for over $100 million isn't exactly moving towards a compromise.  Frankly, it's an insult how they aren't taking that point seriously at all.

The owners are waiting for the players to blink.  They think the threat of missed games and the resulting lost salary will be the thing that drives them to the table and gets them to accept a lesser offer just to get back on the field.  Except that hasn't happened.  It's had the opposite effect actually.  The players get more and more united in their stance against each successive lowball offer the owners make!

And, once regular season games are cancelled, the players gain more and more leverage.  They've already said that if any salary is lost because of cancelled games, they won't agree to expanded playoffs or advertising patches on uniforms, two revenue-generators the owners very much want.  The players also don't even agree with the owners that a 162-game season would be impossible, even if Opening Day is delayed.

Rob Manfred isn't helping matters, either.  The players view him as nothing more than the owners' mouthpiece, and his bragging that "I'm the only Commissioner who's successfully avoided games being lost in a labor dispute" is nothing more than a self-serving pat on the back.  Also, nobody believes him when he tries to say that owning a Major League Baseball team is a money-losing venture, so he really needs to stop pushing that argument!

That's actually what's infuriating the players so much.  They know the money is there.  Major League Baseball is a $2 billion business, yet player salaries have gone down four years in a row even as revenue has gone up.  They just want their fair share of the pie.  They want younger players paid earlier and based on their actual value.  They want a higher minimum salary.  Most significantly, they want owners to actually invest money in their teams.

What the players want isn't unreasonable.  Not even close, actually.  Deep down, I think the owners know that, too.  But...giving the players more money means it's less that goes in the owners' pockets.  So instead, they're willing to cancel games and cost themselves revenue for no other reason than to stick it to the players!

Nobody looks good here.  And the prospect of missing games is only making things worse.  But, should that happen (which seems likely), there's only one side to blame.  The owners.