Negotiations between MLB players and owners reached a tipping point earlier this week, with commissioner Rob Manfred announcing the first two series of the season have been canceled since the two sides failed to reach an agreement before the deadline.
The deadline, of course, was an arbitrary date set by the owners to put pressure on the players to sign a deal. The same is true of the lockout as a whole, an unnecessary tactic that the owners claimed was a defensive move.
Giants outfielder Austin Slater is the club’s union rep, and has been involved in the meetings and negotiations with owners this offseason. He believes that the owners always planned to cancel games this season, believing it would be a necessary move in getting the players’ union to cave.
“It’s a really disappointing outcome,” Slater said on KNBR of the cancelation of games. “Having sat in on a lot of it, unfortunately it felt like an inevitability. It felt like a planned outcome in an attempt to break the union and force a deal down our throats last second. When you look at the big picture it wasn’t remotely close to a fair deal.
“The lockout wasn’t a necessary thing to do. They called it a “defensive lockout”. They had the ability to roll over the last CBA, they decided not to do that in an attempt to pressure players. They set an arbitrary deadline to get a deal done before they had to cancel games as another pressure tactic.”
The players and owners are far apart on issues related to “core economics” including the competitive balance tax threshold and arbitration, things you can read more about here. By almost any objective metric, even if the players got everything they are asking for, it would still be a pro-ownership deal.
The players know this, and it’s why they have never been more committed to holding out for a better deal.
“It felt like this is the most solidarity we’ve had as a union in years,” Slater said. “It’s something that has developed over the last four or five years. There’s been a growing sentiment around the player group that we’re not getting a fair shake out of this deal. Player salaries have stayed stagnant for four years, and over the last four years league revenues have grown by 70%. So this is something that’s been building. We’ve been prepared for this and we’re ready to see it all the way through.”
Slater said the players are still open to negotiating and do not want to lose anymore games. They plan to make a new offer to the owners in the coming days. It will then be up to Manfred and Co. for negotiations to continue.
“That’s up to the ownership groups. We’re probably going to make a proposal in the next day or two back to the owners. It’s up to them to counter in a timely manner and to discuss and potentially issue a counter on their end that is a fair deal for us.
“It’s not like we’re trying to totally change the dynamics of the game by getting to free agency sooner or getting to arbitration sooner. The things that we’re asking for are fair splits in the revenue that teams are now generating.”
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