Could the CBA have done more than tinker with finances? Maybe not. You can’t legislate doing the right thing. They tried, limiting the expanded playoffs to 12 teams; instituting a draft lottery that would penalize tankers; and introducing measures to try to curb service-time manipulation. But executives can slide around those new rules nearly as easily as they did around the old ones. If 83 wins buys you a ticket to October, do not expect anyone to shoot for 105. Tankers will settle for the 10th pick. General managers will still find a way to call up a player three days shy of what he would need for a full year of service time.
None of these problems go away now that both sides have ratified the CBA. Fixing them will require a much longer fight.
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Even the deal itself contained a reminder of how hard it can be to get teams to play fair: The league asked the union to to drop a grievance, filed in ’20, alleging that the 30 owners could have staged more than 60 games during the COVID-shortened season but chose not to instead. Still on the books is another grievance, filed in 2018, against the Marlins, A’s, Pirates and Rays, alleging that their owners pocketed revenue-sharing money instead of reinvesting it in payroll.
In his press conference announcing the deal, Manfred insisted that these moral worries are overblown. “I think almost without exception that clubs try to do the right thing,” he said. “They want to win. And different people may have different views as to how you should be trying to win and on what timeframe, but I think that the things that we added to the agreement were about addressing player concerns to the extent that we could.”
A few minutes later, he answered a question about his response to another player concern: that CBT thresholds—and therefore player compensation—have not kept pace with league revenues.
“I think that the MLBPA historically has wanted a market-based system [as opposed to a salary cap and a salary floor that would be tied to league revenues, as in the NFL, NBA and NHL],” he said. “Over multiple negotiations that’s been a primary objective of theirs. Markets produce market results, and I think that the changes that were made in this agreement moved dramatically in their direction on topics like the CBT threshold, and I think you’ll probably see a little different market result as a result of the changes.” In other words: Teams can and will spend what they want. Sometimes players will not like that amount.
The battle for the body of baseball is over. The more important fight is just getting started.
More MLB Coverage: • The MLB Lockout Is Over. Now the Chaos Begins • Report: MLB, Players Reach Agreement on New CBA • MLB’s Deal With Apple TV+ Is Bad for Baseball Fans • ‘Sex and the City’ and a Baseball Mystery
