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For the second straight day, MLB and the MLBPA met together to negotiate a new CBA. ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan gathered the details.
There is no deal today. There never was going to be a deal today.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 25, 2022
The takeaway: A pre-arb bonus pool gets the best young players paid more. Players wanted it, and it's a good thing for them. Players are laughing at the $10M offer. It's far too low. Negotiations will change that.
On the first point, it is a win for the MLBPA that a pre-arb bonus pool was agreed upon. Although both sides are way off on how large that money pool would be, it is at least refreshing that some sort of agreement was made.
Baby steps, people.
How players would be chosen for said bonus pool, I am not so sure. Although WAR is a great stat for the general fan to observe, I am not so sure it would be an appropriate tool to determine which players deserve to make more money. There are multiple forms of WAR. Which one would be the standard? Details like these need to be ironed out.
On the second point, it seems as though MLB is budging on increasing the league’s minimum player salary. This is good for the players. That said, the MLBPA should probably wait to see if MLB will budge more.
Overall, as a fan of the game, I am encouraged that at least some progress was made over the past two days. If you were to ask me a week ago if I thought the 2022 season would start on time, I would have given an emphatic no. Right now, I still don’t think the season starts on time. However, the chances are better now than they were two days ago.
We are about a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting for Spring Training. At least we are supposed to be. The two sides are still far from reaching a deal. It remains to be seen whether or not they will in time. At least now though, there is a slight glimmer of hope.