Topline
The MLB on Thursday asked a federal mediation service to help resolve its two-month-long lockout with the MLB Players Association, ESPN reported, as the dispute threatens to halt the the start of the 2022 season with just 56 days left until Opening Day.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 05: The New York Yankees stand for the National Anthem against the … [+]
Key Facts
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an independent agency of the U.S. government that has helped resolve labor disputes within the NFL and NHL in the past, was asked to assist with negotiations between MLB team owners and the league’s Players Association, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Spring training is scheduled to begin February 26, with Opening Day set for March 31, leaving just weeks for players and management to reach a deal.
Passan also reported a Tuesday meeting between the league and the Players Association bore little progress, and a “delay feels inevitable.”
Key Background
The lockout began on December 2, after the MLB’s teams and players failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. The Players Association is seeking to reconfigure certain league protocols before signing a new agreement, though MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in a letter to fans that the Players Association’s requests “would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive.” According to MLB Network’s Mark Feinsand, the Players Association put forth two major requests in Tuesday’s meeting: Allowing players with at least two years of service time whose contracts have expired to resolve contract disagreements through an arbitration process, and reducing revenue sharing between large- and small-market teams. Players believe revenue-sharing incentivizes small-market teams to “tank,” the strategy in which a team intentionally loses games in order to earn higher draft picks, allowing them to keep payrolls low by filling a roster with young, cheap talent. The MLB also hopes to allow more teams into the postseason, which players think may lower their collective pay as teams will not need to try as hard to secure top-tier talent to make the playoffs and earn extra ticket and TV revenue.
Surprising Fact
There have been nine lockouts and strikes throughout MLB history, but only three have led to canceled games. Games were most recently nixed during the 1994-95 strike, with 938 missed games and a canceled 1994 postseason and World Series. That lockout marked the first time a World Series was canceled since 1904, when John T. Brush, president of the then-National League Champion New York Giants, refused to play against the Boston Americans, which he called the “representative of the inferior American League.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/02/03/mlb-reportedly-seeks-government-help-to-resolve-lockout-as-opening-day-looms/