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MLB News: Compensation for Younger Players a Major Sticking Point for Club Owners

Eric Eulau 01/16/2022

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Evan Drellich is one of the few MLB experts who’s been plugged into the labor negotiations long before the current lockout started. Drellich joined AM570’S David Vassegh on Dodger Talk this week to discuss MLB’s CBA negotiations.

Per Drellich, the league and owners drew a pretty hard line on three key topics back in early December. He paraphrased the owners’ communication to the players on those issues:

“We’re not going to talk about revenue sharing (the amount of money going between the teams), we’re are not going to talk about getting to free agency earlier and we aren’t going to talk about getting to arbitration earlier.”

Vassegh then asked Drellich what he believes will be the biggest holdup for a new CBA between MLB and the MLBPA.

“I would be inclined to bet that the arbitration issue, getting younger players paid more, paid sooner, is the thing that’s probably going to be the hold up here. I can’t imagine getting players to free agency is the thing that’s going hold up this season. I just don’t see that.”

Based on Drellich’s well-informed take, significantly increasing the pay scale for players still under team control is not going to past muster with the MLB owners.

MLB and the MLBPA met this past Thursday and according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, it didn’t go smoothly. Which was not a surprise.

Baseball labor update: There is no deal. There never was going to be one today. MLB made a proposal. The reaction among the players was not positive. Few on either side expected it to be. The question is how soon the MLBPA counters. Spring training starting on time is in peril.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 13, 2022

Spring training is on the horizon. Pitchers and catchers typically arrive to camp around Valentine’s Day. Nobody will be reporting to anything if the league and players’ association can’t come to terms.

Based on Drellich’s knowledge of the situation, drastically increasing compensation for younger players is a non-starter for MLB.

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