MLB CBA negotiations: Takeaways from the league's and union's initial proposals
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz discuss their takeaways from the league's and union's CBA proposals. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Both the league and the union submitted formal proposals for the first time in this negotiating cycle.
Neither of these proposals will become the economic structure of our sport.
We know that if there is a salary cap, probably, it will be with a floor of $171 million.
It will certainly not be lower than that, probably.
A lot is going to happen.
We are nowhere close to the end.
I feel no better nor worse about baseball occurring in 2027 than I did a handful of days ago.
And so as we kind of handicap this conversation for today, what's important to understand is what we did get, and that is what we got.
We have goalposts.
The headliner is very simple.
MLB is asking, pushing, publicly declaring an intention to institute a salary cap for the first time in 30 years.
Let's be real.
Okay, maybe I'm being too cynical.
What is the goal of the union?
To ensure that its body, that its players get paid more money effectively.
What is the goal of the league?
That's, I mean, that's the gig.
That's the gig for any union in- Well, I'm not, I'm just, I'm now saying, and for the league, it is to ensure that the owners are making more money and the league is making more money.
Okay.
Whatever they, either of these sides are saying to us in public, whatever proposed altruism they are conveying, I am going to decide to see through that for now, because I don't really believe them where they're both using the idea of fairness and an even playing field and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Sure.
But in reality, you are trying to enrich a certain segment of the baseball population.
And I think that we, as the capital M media, our job in this is to, and I saw, is to act on behalf of the fans and to try and advocate on behalf of the fans and think about this from a fan perspective.
Because at the end of the day, like Jordan, I don't give a crap whether the players make more money or the owners make more money.
I want to watch baseball.
And so right now I'm at a point where I, maybe I'm entering this too cynically, but like all of the things that the sides are saying about making the game better, they can kind of like, they can keep that to themselves at least for now, because we know that's what, that's not what this is actually about for them.
