The pathway to the end of the MLB lockout very well might be with the CBT, which appears to represent the biggest domino in talks.
Of the many areas MLB and the MLBPA seem far apart on, the difference in the two sides’ Competitive Balance Tax number has been a substantial gap. Players think the number, which was at $210 million last season, needs to be higher since plenty of teams use that figure as an unofficial salary cap. The owners contend raising that number will offset competitive balance and keep smaller market teams from competing.
The players’ want the number to start at $238 million and rise gradually over the life of the CBA. The owners’ final proposal last Tuesday had that number starting at $220 million. A revised proposal this week started at $228 million.
So, they’re getting closer, but more work on that front will need to be done. The Athletic’s MLB Insider, Ken Rosenthal, shared on “The Athletic MLB Podcast” released Tuesday that the league might not hold firm on 228.
With conditions, of course.
“I was told (Sunday) night by people with knowledge of the league’s thinking that if they could get gives in other areas - specifically, probably most importantly, with rules changes and speeding up the timetable for rules changes – then, perhaps, they could move off of 228 and get closer to the union’s ask of 238 for that first threshold,” Rosenthal said. “That seems to be the one thing that is the biggest holdup, but there are ways to attack that with other gives, other concessions, other tradeoffs that perhaps would make that less of a singular issue.”
This is an interesting situation. The players’ side has seemed amenable to the rule changes for a little while now, and you can’t rule out this being posturing on the league’s side so they potentially can turn around and say that they were willing to raise the CBT number, but the players didn’t respond by making enough concessions.
Either way, this Tuesday marks another huge day for the league. It represents the latest deadline for the two sides to reach a deal without needing to cancel games. Should things not get resolved Tuesday, it seems highly unlikely a full, 162-game season will be played.
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