MLB News: Max Scherzer Says League ‘Muddying the Waters’

Another CBA deadline came and went on Wednesday. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred cancelled yet another week of games. It appears that this time, a 162-game regular season is officially toast.

Earlier in the week, much of the talk surround the MLB CBA was about the luxury tax threshold, minimum player salaries, and the pre-arbitration bonus pool – as it’s been for weeks. But then, the MLB desire to implement an international draft suddenly was front-and-center. 

The new draft system was a key reason why yet another potential deal fell through. The fallout trigged a tweet from former Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer – who is also a member of the MLBPA executive committee.

I was in FL. We never offered the Int’l Draft. We did discuss it, but MLB told us they were NOT going to offer anything for it. At that point, we informed all players & agreed to no draft.

This is MLB muddying the waters & deflecting blame. Fans, pls hang in there with us.

— Max Scherzer (@Max_Scherzer) March 10, 2022

Earlier in the day, the MLB asserted that the international draft had been included in prior bargaining sessions.

An MLB official said the league has included the international draft in every relevant proposal. A union official says the international draft has been rejected every time it has been raised.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 9, 2022

At the expense of being the Twitter police, this is Scherzer's first tweet since February 4th. This isn't a player who punches in 120 characters every other hour to voice his displeasure with MLB. 

The fact is, Wednesday's events merited a response from a prominent player in the negotiations. Scherzer's message also speaks to the ongoing public relations battle between MLB and the MLBPA. 

The international draft component ended up being a key issue that MLB tied other outstanding issues to. Ken Rosenthal laid out the scenarios that the league gave Scherzer and the MLBPA on Wednesday.

Union would find idea of re-opener unappealing, sources say. If deal in few years was working well for players, league would have option to escape and stage another lockout. https://t.co/dXaTlRsKHe

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 9, 2022

Of course, we now know that the MLBPA selected "Choice D": None of the Above.

Some could argue that the league made concessions on the three core economic issues holding up the CBA (luxury tax, minimum player salaries, and pre-arbitration bonus pool), but then inserted the international draft language to throw yet another wrench in the negotiations.

In turn, the MLBPA inevitably turning down the league's latest proposal created a runway for the league and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to publicly villainize the union's decision.

The results of Wednesday is another week of regular season games cancelled. 

Now, the soonest date for Opening Day would be April 14th. 

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