MLB cancels first week of regular season

Rob Manfred announced this afternoon that MLB has unilaterally canceled the first week of the regular season after the league and the players failed to reach an agreement today on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The biggest sticking point, as it has been throughout the negotiations, appears to be the threshold for the Competitive Balance Tax. MLB’s “last, best offer” had the CBT thresholds at $220 million for 2022-24, $224 million in 2025, and $230 million in 2026.

The CBT threshold in 2021 was $210 million, which means that the year-over-year increases in the CBT threshold in the owners proposal are:

4.8%

0%

0%

1.8%

2.6%

Given that the CBT functions as a soft cap, I have no idea why anyone would claim that this is a reasonable, good faith offer from MLB — especially given that revenues in MLB have been rising, and are projected to continue to rise, at a much higher rate than these increases.

The Competitive Balance Tax threshold in 2014 was $189 million, and has not risen at a level that comes close to mirroring the rise in revenues. Addressing this situation is something that the players prioritized in this deal — and for very good reason.

Instead, Rob Manfred, in his comments today, had the gall to point to the CBT not having risen much the last several years to justify their proposing to essentially keep the threshold flat going forward.

That’s like your boss telling you, I’ve been giving you shitty raises for the past several years, so its unreasonable for you to ask for a bigger raise this year.

I’m angry. Fuck Rob Manfred and fuck the owners.