Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting, left, talks to team president Travis Williams during a spring training baseball workout Monday, Feb. 17, 2020, in Bradenton, Fla. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The Major League Baseball Players’ Association voted unanimously to elect Bruce Meyer as interim executive director, replacing Tony Clark, who resigned from the position due to an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law.
Meyer’s tenure as interim head of the MLBPA comes in the final year of the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, which expires on Dec. 1. Meyer will continue to serve as the chief negotiator with the league through the ongoing talks.
One of the biggest points of contention in the upcoming discussions will be the possible implementation of a salary cap, which, if added, would have to come with a salary floor.
Teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, who operate in smaller markets and don’t have the luxury of enormous television revenues, will be proponents of adding a salary cap. On the flip side, teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers will be against adding a cap but would surely like to see a floor put into place.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers wrote about Meyer, and based off his comments, the implementation of a salary cap looks very unlikely.
“It’s the ultimate restriction,” said Meyer. “It is something that owners in all the sports have wanted more than anything, and baseball in particular, there’s a reason for that because it’s good for them and not good for players.”
In addition to a salary/cap floor system, there are a number of other contested topics that will be the subject of intense negotiation talks, such as revenue sharing, a potential international draft, arbitration and league expansion among others.
With a laundry list of issues to sort through and based off how last cycle’s negotiations went, a lockout feels inevitable.
Meyer feels the same way.
“A lockout is all but guaranteed at the end of the agreement. The league has pretty much said that,” he explained. “Their strategy in bargaining has always been to put as much pressure on players as they can to try and create divisions and cracks among our membership. It’s never worked. I don’t think it ever will work.”
Get ready baseball fans. This could get ugly.
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