MLB rejects players union's proposal for $30 million cut to revenue sharing

Over the past two days, both the MLB Players Association and Major League Baseball have put forth proposals on some of the game’s core economic issues. While the sides have made a bit of movement toward a midpoint — the MLBPA agreed to drop its push for earlier free agency eligibility; MLB agreed to a union formulation for a bonus pool that would award certain pre-arbitration players based upon their performance — there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that MLB’s proposal would also include international signing bonus pool forfeitures for teams that exceed the CBT threshold. Interestingly, Slusser adds some details on the union’s CBT proposals as well. Under the MLBPA’s proposed framework, the CBT would escalate from the $245 million mark in 2022 to $273 million by 2026.

Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter links and thread) provides more details on MLB’s offer Tuesday afternoon. Notably, the league rejected the union’s recent push for a $30 million cut in revenue sharing, reiterating its desire to leave the process unchanged. (The MLBPA had initially been seeking a $100 million cut to revenue sharing but dropped the ask in Monday’s offer). MLB also rejected a union push for players to accrue service time during postseason play.

Both Nicholson-Smith and Bob Nightengale of USA Today note that the league continues to push for more significant penalties for teams that exceed the luxury-tax threshold. According to Nightengale, MLB’s most recent offer on the matter would’ve included a 50% tax on CBT overages and the forfeiture of a third-round draft pick for surpassing the threshold.

That would mark a rather significant uptick over the penalties in the previous CBA, which contained no draft-pick forfeiture and a 20% tax on overages for teams exceeding the base threshold for the first time. The sides are also divided on where such a threshold should be set. While the union has pushed for the CBT marker to jump from $210 million to $245 million next season, MLB has offered a far more modest increase to $214 million next year, maxing out at $220 million at the end of a five-year term.

With plenty of key economic issues still to be ironed out, Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers of ESPN write that the parties are planning to turn their attention to some ancillary subjects over the coming days before coming back to the issues of greater divide. Nicholson-Smith tweets that the joint drug agreement and grievance procedures are among the forthcoming topics of discussion.