FTW Explains: What are MLB players so mad about?
Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have heard about some public hostility between MLB players and the league. So what's that about? We’re here to help.
Wait, the baseball players are mad?
Yes, some of them are. Most of the sport's top free agents remain unsigned less than a week before spring training starts, and the unusual lack of apparent interest from teams has led to suggestions of collusion and threats of a spring-training boycott from agents, players and the MLB Players Association. The MLBPA distanced itself from talk of a spring holdout, but many of its players are still speaking out on behalf of their unsigned brethren.
Are they going to go on strike?
It's incredibly unlikely. Terms of the sport's Collective Bargaining Agreement, which the league and union agreed to in December of 2016 and isn't set to expire until 2021, are among the primary factors contributing to the number of players still on the open market this winter. In that deal, the players successfully negotiated for certain extra comforts -- including additional days off during the season and new scheduling rules preventing arduous travel turnarounds -- but allowed the draft-pick compensation system that was already hindering free agency to continue. While MLB teams no longer ever need to forfeit first-round picks to sign top-tier free agents, clubs beyond the sport's luxury-tax threshold now give up second and fifth round picks as well as money from their allocated pool for international amateurs.
Teams would rather have draft picks than established stars?
Not exactly. The current CBA, the first for Rob Manfred as commissioner and the first with Tony Clark heading the MLBPA, also implemented a more punitive luxury-tax system to limit the spending of the league's richest clubs. Teams pay increasing competitive-balance tax rates for every year their payroll is above the predetermined threshold -- 20% on the overages the first year, 30% for the second year, 50% for Year 3 and beyond. Clubs that exceed the threshold by $20 million or more are now subject to additional monetary penalties, and clubs that go over by $40 million pay another additional charge and have their top draft picks pushed back 10 spots.
This essentially creates a soft salary cap: The increasing tax rates means traditionally big-spending teams like the Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox cannot just blow past the threshold every season and abide the rate on overages. The Dodgers, with seemingly limitless finances, had an estimated opening-day payroll of over $270 million in 2015 but will likely open 2018 near or below the $197 million threshold. Forcing the league's wealthiest franchises out of the marketplace, obviously, drives down the prices on all free agents.
What's all this about the integrity of the game?
Ironically, the success of free agency from the players' standpoint made it so expensive for teams to depend on free agency that they began recognizing the value in developing young homegrown players, who need six years of service time before they can hit the open market. And since both the league's draft and its international amateur signing system reward bottom-dwelling clubs, clubs without obvious hopes of contention are basically best served losing as many games as they can -- tanking.
The last two World Series champions -- the Cubs and Astros -- both won around homegrown cores of players collected during rebuilding phases. If you can't hope to contend every single season, it's the smart way to run a baseball team, and baseball teams are increasingly smart. At least 10 teams -- 1/3 of the league -- have no apparent designs whatsoever on competing in 2018.
For players, this stinks twice over: For one thing, it means those 10 teams also won't be spending much in free agency, again reducing the competition for free agents. For another, it means you or one of your buddies might end up trying to win games for a front office that would kind of prefer it if you didn't. That can't be fun.
Ugh, I can't handle these millionaire athletes complaining
OK, but understand this: MLB industry revenues rocketed past $10 billion last year, and there's research to suggest players are taking in a smaller share of the profits than they have at any point since the 1994-95 strike. We get mad at millionaire ballplayers because we don't get to see how much money billionaire owners make off their efforts.
The Players Association is partly responsible for the current situation, but individual players have every right to be mad. These are boon times for Major League Baseball, yet the terms of the CBA threaten to prevent player salaries from growing in accordance with the growth of the game.
Is there really collusion?
It wouldn't be the first or second or third time for MLB owners, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility. But there are so many other factors conspiring against this offseason's free agents that it doesn't seem like collusion is the only potential explanation.
On top of everything else, this happens to be a fairly weak free-agent class -- even its best players come with question marks or obvious flaws -- and next year's crop is expected to include Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, and possibly Clayton Kershaw. It used to be that a mega-market club could pursue players in one offseason without worrying about how they'll fit new free agents in the next, but the additional luxury-tax penalties now complicate that.
I thought this had something to do with a pitch clock
It kind of does. Manfred has also secured the right to unilaterally implement rule changes for the good of the game, and for most of 2017 it was expected he would add a 20-second pitch clock in 2018 to hasten the pace of play. Many players -- especially the pitchers accustomed to working at their own speed -- do not like the idea, so it is also the source of some tension.
What's going to happen?
For one thing, there might be a lot of roster movement in early spring training, assuming the free-agent players do ultimately accept lowball offers or find clubs willing to pony up cash after unexpected injuries. But at this point in the offseason, many clubs already feature full 40-man rosters, so a whole lot of guys will need to be cut early in camp to make room for the influx of late-signing free agents.
Eric Hosmer (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
But in terms of bigger picture issues, for now it seems likely there'll be more talk than action. Since the MLBPA agreed to the terms now hamstringing some players, and since players tend to bear the burden of public vitriol even if they're not responsible for labor strife, they've got no good recourse that doesn't amount to a PR nightmare. The annual union meetings at spring training should be more interesting than most years.
Ideally -- though probably not likely -- the current outrage leads the league and its players union to reevaluate a lot of the organization's entrenched systems and ultimately come up with creative compromises. Getting rid of the annual amateur draft, shortening the service time necessary for free agency, and limiting the revenue-sharing money given to perennially bad clubs could help better compensate young and veteran players alike, and concessions made on behalf of the play or (and I shudder) on-uniform advertisements could help the league keep growing and generating money. And then maybe, when all that's done, they can start paying minor leaguers minimum wage.
More FTW Explains!
NASCAR’s Open Exemption Provisional allowing Hélio Castroneves to race in the Daytona 500, explained
How Victor Wembanyama became 'Hector Banana-Bread', explained
What is a free kick? The fair catch kick in Broncos-Chargers, explained