Here’s the latest from MLBPA head Tony Clark, who gave an interview to the Associated Press last week in which he articulated his positions on a number of issues that could affect the next round of CBA negotiations once the current CBA expires in December. Here are the highlights.
- Clark expressed frustration that top players are still on the free agent market in February. (Presumably, Clark is referring to players like Ian Desmond, Dexter Fowler and Yovani Gallardo, who remain on the market after rejecting qualifying offers months ago. “I think it’s disappointing when there are as many talented players still without a home,” he said. “I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interest to be in a world where very talented players are at home for whatever reason they are there. It will likely be a part of the conversation in bargaining.”
- Clark also said he might be in favor of some sort of draft lottery system. As opposed to the current system, which awards draft picks merely on reverse order of record, a lottery system might somewhat disincentivize the kind of so-called “tanking” seen in recent years from teams like the Astros (who got three straight No. 1 overall picks from 2012 through 2014) and Braves. “It will be beneficial to look at that, and not look at it in a vacuum but appreciate whatever it is that we attempt to negotiate there or propose there, that it ties into the other moving pieces and doesn’t create an imbalance,” Clark said.
- There are “very significant issues” with the idea of an international draft, Clark said, although he expects the idea will come up in CBA negotiations. (This isn’t the first time Clark has expressed doubt about the possibility of an international draft.)
- Unsurprisingly, Clark believes the luxury tax threshold should rise. The figure remains at $189MM, and its growth has not kept pace with industry revenue. The threshold has arguably constrained player salaries, as it has likely played a role in preventing some traditional big spenders (such as the Angels) from signing key free agents this offseason.
There are allot of flaws in the system and how it is run. Bad teams will continue to suck when it means they can get a first round pick and just suck money from the big market teams in revenue sharing. I dont see things changing a whole lot when the next CBA is up. They may try to address one thing only this time like the draft pick compensation and even then the teams will want something in exchange for giving up something. That is just how it will always go down.
I think there are other teams tanking more than the Braves
Cough cough(Phillies, Reds, Brewers)
I don’t like the word “tanking.”
No team is baseball is tanking. They sell their vets for prospects, then they just aren’t as good.
How do you call the Reds tanking with when they still have 3 players with 82M+ contracts?
If the Phillies were tanking, they’d just resign guys like Jerome WIlliams and Sean O’Sullivan for MLB min instead of spending 16M on Hellickson and Morton.
I agree that it has become a “go to buzzword” for rebuilding. There is a big difference between rebuilding and tanking. Rebuilding is choosing a core player or small group of players and complementing them with younger players. Tanking is just selling off everyone with a “brand name” and putting a cheap minor league team on the field until you collect enough draft picks to get better like the Astros. Yes it seems like that strategy may have worked, but that is inconsequential, it was a completely against the idea of sportsmanship. Completely burning down a town will get you some great farmland, but that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
if everyone in town takes your buyout and sell you their land it might very well be the right thing to do.
It might be the right thing for you, but not for the town. Just like it may have been the right thing for the Astros, but not for baseball and sportsmanship in general.
To be fair, the Reds tried trading one of those $82M+ players and he refused to agree to waive his no-trade clause, and another one of those $82M+ players is currently being shopped around.
The Phillies just can’t win. When they hold onto their players the national media screams they are stupid and need to move on. Now that they have traded everyone they get accused of tanking.
Marlins could be considered tankers also
Baseball isn’t like basketball. “Tanking” makes sense in the NBA if it gives you the chance to pick a generational player #1, such as LeBron who can instantly give your franchise a boost on the court and at the box office. Houston, Miami and other teams didn’t “tank”….they just didn’t have talent and saw no reason to waste money on expensive veterans who weren’t worth it. Yes, you can get talent like Harper and Price…..but there’s a lot of misses. And keep in mind Seattle had Griffey and ARod…..but had the greatest season for wins when those two along with Unit left the M’s. It’s just too much of a team game. One player isn’t going to change a loser into a winner like Lew Alcindor/Kareem did.
The Braves lineup is a joke. Phillies will be better than them IMO, but I wouldn’t classify either as “tanking.”
I’d like to see teams be able to trade draft picks, like other pro sports. It would increase interest in mlbtraderumors too 😉
I’d also like to say, I don’t feel sorry for the free agents who are not signed yet, it was a calculated risk ON THEIR PART. If they had of accepted the 15.8 million qualifying offer, they’d be playing, that’s not greed on the owners, that’s greed on the agents and players.
I don’t think trading picks will ever be a thing unless the QO is taken away.
If a team trades their 1st round and 2nd round 2017 picks at the 2016 trade deadline, then they aren’t really gonna be penalized for spending in FA. They’ll get talent out of those draft picks then go signs guys with QOs attached without really being penalized that badly
maybe try to get the the team that loses a good player to gain a pick, but the signing team doesn’t have to give one up.
We’ll see how you feel about that when Joey bats get his qualifying offer and so does EE
As a jays fan, best case scenario is they both accept the one year deal! Not likely though…
Lol, doesn’t matter to me, I’m just a fan and I support the team no matter. Draft picks are such an insane long shot, even the top ones.
I think EE signs before spring training, he basically offered them a deal, and he’s just a DH, he won’t command any more than 17 million per year, I’m using David Ortiz and Nelson Cruz and Victor Martinez as comparables. Jose on the other hand, Rogers Ownership will have to assume a lot of risk on his deal, and we will see how they feel about that, if they wait until after the year is over however, they have no chance. Ownership reps have been very clear they would like to sign them, I have no reason to think they won’t give both players fair offers. The Jays would most certainly remain competitive for the years they sign, and they need to give the farm a couple years to rebuild, so, it makes sense to explore getting something your comfortable with done.
There was an interesting article in the globe and mail about some accounting reasons as to why Rogers ownership doesn’t freely spend on Jays payroll as the do with other sports properties, it was quite interesting.
theglobeandmail.com/sports/no-love-for-blue-jays-i…
Some of them are fine with less than 15M a year, but would rather multi-year deals over the annual amount, but teams aren’t even showing interest because they don’t wanna give up the pick.
It’s never going to happen and shouldn’t happen. You’ll have owners willing to dump draft picks because of signing bonuses just willing to collect sharing revenue. Not only that even though picks are slotted they’d have to come up with a sliding scale depending on which picks are traded to determine the amount of money they could possibly spend. Baseball isn’t like other sports in terms of players that need to be drafted. The sport also isn’t privy to a cap which is a good thing although there should be a floor.
All it’ll take is one horrible gm on the brink of being fired trading away an organizations’ future (draft picks a plenty) to save his own skin, for you to see why trading picks could be a bloody awful thing for baseball.
If a player accepts a QO can the team offer another one next year? I have a hard time feeling sorry for a player still sitting at home who turns down over 15 million dollars to play one more year in their current organization. I do sympathize though with a player if they risk entering a cycle of one year deals. If this is the case, the new cba should limit to no repeat CO offers
How come there is never a mention of the cubs tanking. They are probably the biggest example of a large market team that is an extreme cash cow in mlb, yet as soon as Theo was brought in, they cried broke and tanked from the get go while the loveable loser faithful packed the stadium. Best of all Chicago sports radio gave them a mulligan and never called them out even though they don’t hesitate to call every other owner in the city cheap.
I’ve been saying this for a while. The Cubs were and still are one of the most recognizable franchises in all of sports but they got a free pass and continue to do so. I know their former leadership led them into a mess but still.
And Atlanta had the 14th pick in 15 and the 3rd this year but they’re suddenly the prime example lol ok. And personally i feel they won’t even pick higher than 5th in 17 but whatever I guess they’re the tanking poster child now.
I can’t believe I’m saying this and if you track me down and determine my real name I will deny it faster than than a politician denying a leak… but the the Braves are being unfairly singled out. As are the Phillies!
For 5 years, I listened to people who were saying “Why aren’t the Phillies rebuilding? They’re too old to compete!” over and over and over again. We finally did what you said over the last 2 years, beginning the rebuilding process. We got the 7th pick last year. We got the 1st pick this year. Now the Braves and the Phillies are held up as the golden children of tanking. How does that work? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
It all boils down to management. Draft picks are useless UNLESS you have the scouts who know what to look for and the people in the minors who know how to develop those picks. The Cardinals and Dodgers have usually been good for a long time because they knew how to do it well. KC didn’t until the last 4-5 years. The Pirates did not for many years and were lousy until the last couple years. The Astros merely decided not to load up on mediocre expensive veterans and instead went for young players. They did very well last year. How well their system continues to draft/develop young talent remains to be seen.
Previous MLBPA leaders have had degrees in economics or were lawyers and extensive experience. Not sure Clark is the man to be heading the MLBPA, but he was voted in, so …….
That said, not sure why would be bothered to concern himself with the draft since they only represent players on the 40 man. Its probably the least of MLBPA’s concern
The LT threshold has always been subject to escalation. Nothing new here. The recent agreement to hold it relatively flat was a colossal mistake by Weiner who was ill and justified by the recession. However, it should have been tied to economic indicators. Clark should be looking at a 30% increase at least with subsequent escalators to make up for the last couple of years.
As far as the QO system, nothing wrong with it except for the draft pick penalty. Clark and the MLBPA should insist the penalty be scrapped entirely. This is nothing more than a tax on players who have already served their 6 years of servitude.. Draft pick compensation is fine, don’t confuse the two.
Since the top salaries for FA are being held relatively flat relative to payroll inflation, with teams claiming players don’t age as well, MLBPA should seek to reduce the teams control so they can be FA earlier. With minor league salaries at 3100 per year and bonuses restrained (thanks to MLBPA agreement) , I don’t believe development costs are that much of a burden compared to prior years The best solution is to make every player a FA after his age 28 season, or 6 years team control, whichever comes first.
MLBPA is getting a smaller piece of the revenue pie than ever before, down to 40% from its peak of 53% at the turn of the century. They should consider to at least drop the number of years a player makes the minimum to 2 years (which is really 3 years given service time manipulations), as well as a healthy increase to the minimum to redistribute some of the wealth.
Expanded rosters are another way to boost the players share. With teams making use of the AAA shuttle like never before, and players health a concern, expanded rosters make more sense than reducing the season length which has not been an issue for over 50 years
You said some really good stuff. I differ with you on increasing the luxury tax to include what should have been prior incremental increases. I feel it should be based on economic factors but increased as a normal increase, 2-3%. 30% as you suggested would then having it at about 6% a year. It would become astronomical in no time. I compare it to house increases, they should in the right market appreciate very slowly, 1-2% annually
Possible solution to the qualifying offer issue: team can still offer player a qualifying offer. Player can still accept or reject qualifying offer. If player declines and signs with a new team, his old team still gets a comp pick and his new team loses a percentage of their next year’s draft money – but keeps their draft slot. The percentage is taken from their first available pick.
For example, if their total draft pool money is $10m, they would lose 10% (or $1m.) which would be subtracted from their first available pick. If their first available pick is less than $1m, they lose that pick and the remaining amount is taken from their second highest pick, etc.
If their first pick had a slot value of $2.5m, they would now have $1.5m for that slot, and would have to get creative in how they draft. They could either draft a below slot player and pay him up to $1.5, or a below slot player in a later round to afford the first round pick they want. Such as a $10k bonus to their 2nd rounder to allocate that money to the first rounder.
Although that system would be different it wouldn’t change the outcome. Teams would still be reluctant to sign players with the QO tag. Players need to be more in tune with their own value. Colby Rasmus saw he wasn’t going to be worth more than 15.8 million a year so he took the offer.
That doesn’t hurt the team, it hurts the drafted player. So because the team tried to get better and sign players, the high school player gets $250k+ less…
Doesn’t make sense to me.
I agree. Don’t punish the drafted player. All teams would love a chance to sign their drafted players for less money.
What about tying compensation to the Rule V draft. If you sign a free agent the team that loses a player gets to pick 2 players from the signing team that would have been eligible for the Rule V draft. The signing team shouldn’t mind this as they would have lost the players in the draft anyway. It works for the drafting team because they would get to pick from minor league tested players who in theory should be less of a risk then a amateur player.
Clark thinks that a draft lottery system would stop tanking? Perhaps he should ask the NBA how that has worked out for them. The 76ers and the Astros are probably the two most egregious violators of the tanking strategy in recent history.
Nope. The Indianapolis Colts.
The Colts didn’t tank. I watched them play. They were just THAT bad without Manning for a single season. Just because you lose doesn’t mean you tank, sometimes you are just worse than everyone else. That’s why my Rockies are never accused of tanking. They just simply aren’t as good as everyone else.
76ers are in the dictionary when you look up TANKING
from 09-14, the Astros paid the price for a lousy farm system while they were a competitive team for a decade with Biggio, Oswalt, Berkman, Reynolds and Bagwell…who were basically home grown products. The new ownership I don’t think tanked on purpose. They had a difficult business decision to make: We don’t have the young talent right now to replace them so that meant either waste money on has beens like the Brewers did with Lohse and Garza….or burn it down to the ground and start over. The Astros did the later and they paid for it with terrible attendance for several years. They had a good season last year and have the building blocks to be very good for years to come.
The new ownership publicly stated that they were getting rid of everyone making a certain amount of money because it made no sense to spend the money since they were going to lose anyway. How is that not tanking?
The Astros didn’t pay for it. They got rewarded for it with high draft picks. That’s my biggest problem with the draft system. It rewards teams for being bad. We need to reward the teams that try their best and fall short instead. I think we should invert the draft order completely. Give the #1 pick to the team with the best record that MISSED the playoffs (this year it would have been the Angels) and work your way down until you get to the playoff teams when you can go back to the current system. Right now it is better for a franchise to win 60 games than 80 games and that is just stupid. I am sick of rewarding losing in sports.
sure, houston could have spent more money, but spent it on what? the phillies had a huge payroll last year and lost 99 games. just because you spend a lot of money doesn’t make them better players. why spend a lot of money on mediocre old players just to maybe win 4-5 extra games a year? besides, a top pick doesn’t guarantee stardom.. for every bryce harper, i can point to tim bekham. for every david price, there is a luke hochevar. justin upton/delmon young. it’s a giant crapshoot and you need scouting and player development to become a winner. the pirates had 20 years of high draft picks before they became a decent team. the padres have sucked for a long time. correa is a #1 pick who looks like a future star for houston. how mark appel or brady aiken do is anyone’s guess. keuschel, by the way, was a 7th round pick.
Maybe spend it on trying? Only one team wins the World Series every year. Does every other team waste their money to win a few relatively meaningless games?
Of course the top pick fails often, most draft picks do. However what goes along with the #1 pick is the highest bonus pool which is why Houston selected Correa instead of Appel in 2012 to begin with. They picked Correa because he was cheaper and they used the saving to pick a more expensive sign (Lance McCullers) later that people passed on because they didn’t want to blow their lesser monies. They did pretty much the same thing last year with Daz Cameron when they took the college guy Bregman over the more expensive HS sign Brendan Rodgers even though most saw Rodgers as the better talent. It’s not like this will make me stop liking baseball or anything, I really don’t even mind Houston that much, but stuff like this just makes me long for the way things used to be. Or at least the idyllic version of the way things used to be when you forget the bad and remember the good.
I think of the line in the Billy Joel song: “The good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” I remember the so called “Golden Era” of baseball in the 50’s. One of the glamour teams of that time were the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had been just horrible for most of their existence. But Branch Rickey, the man primarily responsible for great Cards teams in the 40’s left STL and took over Brooklyn in the 40’s and rebuilt the farm system with people who knew how to scout and develop players. the result: JRobinson, Hodges, Duke, Newcombe, Erskine, Labine, Pee Wee, Furillo. Rickey had a falling out with new majority owner Walter O”Malley, who was smart enough to keep that team together and they developed later talent like Koufax, Drysdale, Wills, Tommy & Willie Davis and others. Rickey meantime took over the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had also been a terrible franchise for many years and within a few years, they became World Champs and challenger every year for a decade.
Management is the key and getting a scouting/minor league system together that can produce young talent. It’s why the Cards have been successful for so long in spite of not being in a major media market. The Yanks spent all sorts of money in the 80’s signing “names” instead of developing talent. They would bring in people like Steve Balboni, Steve Sax, Roberto Kelly, Mel Hall, Andy Hawkins, Tim Leary and others who had some success elsewhere but were basically mediocre players. Instead, the Yanks had four consecutive losing seasons until the minor league system started churning out people like Bernie Williams, Jeter, Riviera, Soriano, Pettitte, and Posada and then worked in solid veterans like Tino, O’Neill, David Wells and David Cone to become the Bronx Bombers once again. It was like the old days when the Yanks minor leagues churned out Berra, Mantle, Ford, and many others.
Will Brendan Rogers be a better player than Cameron or Bregman? I have no idea and no one else does, either. I remember several highly touted youngsters never made it big. Mike Epstein, Clint Hurdle and Ricky Ledee. And keep in mind that Albert Pujols was taken in the 13th round of the draft by STL. The Astros rebounded last year very well. We’ll see if they are for real or were just a fluke and if their decision to just go with youngsters instead of “names” was the right one.
Every time Clark makes a statement, I swear he’s trying to push the envelope closer to a strike…. perhaps to try to make his name in the labor world. Nearly everything he complains about was partially (and in some cases entirely) a product of the MLBPA creativity. Several of them, he helped forge as a union exec before becoming union pres.
is common knowledge in chicago area that theo tanked. and why so difficult to put the international players in the annual player draft.
You want to put 16 year olds in the same draft as high school graduates. Well then I guess you’re not going to see many American born college players or high school players drafted at the top. You are going to see small bonuses for guys who have no other options and would be willing to take anything. I doubt the MLB wants to get back to a 60 round draft. You have to have to seperate drafts. I hesitate to believe that will happen anytime soon as you still wouldn’t be able to draft from the KBO, Japan or Cuba.
Didn’t adding Puerto Rican players to the draft almost kill baseball in Puerto Rico?
You make 2 drafts, 1 national and 1 international.
Tony Clark is a Shill and a Clown Show and here’s why:
189 million should be more than enough to run a team
Then there are the deals to circumvent that like Max Scherzer deal.
Then I read today, that Bryce Harper could command a 400 million dollar deal just to play some baseball. SMH, WTH
This is the part of the game I despise, the money involved is insane and for Tony Clark to complain that the money is not insane enough is beyond insane.
Players share has continued to drop, do you want the owners to pocket it or the players? Because they aren’t going to pass it on to you that’s for sure.
Those “quality” players could have easily accepted $16M QO’s and been rich beyond my wildest dreams to play my favorite sport for 1 year. Go cry me a river. When are these hacks going to learn to accept the offer and take the money and run? The want security? What? Tell me $8M after taxes isn’t security for a lifetime.
Exactly!!
Have you seen the price of eggs?
Why should a player have to accept the QO. Typically teams get 10 years of control plus or minus a year or two depending on how good they are. If you not a high draft pick or college senior you probably don’t get much of a bonus. The average salary in minors is less than 10,000 so you’re looking at around 8,000 at most until AAA. I don’t know many people that can live off of that. For the 5-6 months you get paid I also think it’s about 1,500 a month in AA and about 2,000 in AAA. You don’t really get decent money until you make the 40 man. Plus add on to that the extras minor league players are all forced to pay. Depending on where you’re playing its kind of hard to rent an apartment. So yeah a club has that much control and that type of salary enforcement. If free agents want to get paid and have SECURITY I’m all for it. If you go to college your broke, you play minor league ball your broke. Heck fast food workers make more than you. 8 million might seem like a lot to you but if you make less than 10,000 for 4-5 years and are subject to team control for 3 years that’s less than two mill before taxes. Which now you have an agent you have to pay, you hopefully want to buy a house. Now if you live in an expensive state you are probably broke again until you get to go to arb. So if you want security, to play where you want to play, and not have to worry about relocating year by year go get paid. Shelf life in this game is very fragile.
People are blurring the lines of perception in baseball with football and basketball. In football and basketball a number one pick can greatly improve the team. Look at Indianapolis, they did tank it and got Andrew Luck. There is no single player in baseball that can do the same thing. So the word tanking in baseball is ludicrous.
I can see the upcoming negotiations for the new CBA with some give and take maneuvering by both the Owners and the Players. I can see a swap of the Qualifying Offer amendment for a International Draft. Higher revenue teams have beaten a flawed system by giving International players, especially from Cuba, huge contracts that lower revenue teams simply can’t afford. Raising the luxury tax another 10-15 million could also be on the table for owners to attain the Player’s support for a International draft as well.
It’s not going to change though as countries would have to agree to a draft. Cuba won’t, Japan and Korea wont as that would destroy their leagues nor should they. Your European free agents probably won’t enter until the 18. It’s an interesting idea but to execute it will be the most difficult aspect.
What will the players have to concede at the CBA bargaining table in order to have the Luxury Tax increases and the compensation draft pick for players that decline the Qualifying Offer?
When players are offered QO’s it shouldn’t be a 1 year at top 100 player avg salary or else decision, there should be multiple tiers to the offering system…i.e. 1 year @ ~18M$ (top 125), 2 years @ ~12 M$ (top 250), 3 years @ ~8 M$ (top 375).
Human beings like security (baseball players, teachers, cops, garbage men, etc..), many players would turn down 1 year deals at a higher salary for 2 years plus at a lower one. Only if a player declines all 3 offers would a team get compensation.
I would say a three year contract would provide security and earning. With the threshold evolving 3*50 or 51 provides teams with serous thought about extending an offer and players ability to decide if they want to stay.
In addition make all 1st round picks protected, or at least the top 15 (which would include pretty much every team with a sub .500 record).
Too many teams in the 11-20 area are scared to lose that pick.
Even better lose the protection altogether, BUT everyone gets the opportunity to sign one QO free agent without penalty. The original team would still get a sandwich pick, but no one loses a pick until they sign a second FA. Right now there is far less penalty for a team like the Giants, who have already lost two picks, to sign a Fowler than the Orioles.
Or we could also institute a tiered QO system. A higher QO offer for a Greinke type FA in exchange for 2 sandwich picks. The offering team would lose their 1st rounder for signing him. No protection for any picks, because signing a player like Greinke would be worth losing the even the #1 pick in almost every case. Then you could have a smaller QO for Fowler types in exchange for a pick between the 2nd and 3rd round before the Comp B. Offering teams would lose only their 2nd round picks for signing them.
I get the union wants to make the most they can for the players, and the owners profit usually even off of bad teams, but as a fan it is costing way to much to go to ball games anymore. Instead of increasing the luxary tax, put it down/make a salary cap, but make a minimum cap as well. Kind of be like the cap is like 150 mil, but every team needs to spend 90 million a season or the owner has to pay the difference, something like that. I think that gives all teams a fair shot at free agents. This compensation picks are really designed for small market teams to get compensation for players leaving to a larger market. I also would like to see the draft picks in the first three rounds, the players can only negotiate to play in the MLB with the team that drafts them and teams can move/trade the rights to those players like the NBA does. It would create a whole new dynamic and maybe not better for the draftees in a way, but with set prices in the first three rounds for player contracts, the draft pick values are so much higher now. We also can cut down the rounds a fair amount. No one makes it to the pros anymore after like round 20. Do the 20 rounds and then let the other guys sign as free agents. I know like most players only stay in the minors, but give the later found draftees chances to go where they want. If anything this may encourage more kids to go to college, get an associates at least and try again for the pros. Also for international draft, maybe just make it like the NBA and have anyone under a certain age that declares for free agency (23 and down) to have to apply and register for the draft and the team that drafts them can sign them. This would make it fair in all honesty.