MLB Owners Are To Blame For Players Not Trusting Them

It is visible right now as to why exactly Major League Baseball players don’t trust owners in labor negotiations, and why that could leak into future discussions and potentially cause a work stoppage for the 2022 season.

We just have to look closely to see it.

MLB owners are expected to make their latest proposal today to start the 2020 season. The problem, as always, is money. It’s been reported that the owners’ latest offer will payout a total of $1.43 billion to players – about the same amount as their previous offer. Meanwhile, every offer the players have sent has totaled more than $2 billion in payouts. 

That’s a huge gap – more than $500 million – and one the owners don’t appear to be willing to bridge. Instead, they appear to be hiding total payouts behind games played and sliding scales.

“Exactly,” one MLB player said via text. “That’s the problem.” 

Also, as the MLB Players Union sees it, taking less money now because owners are crying poor makes them vulnerable to owners continuing to do this in the future, say if attendance is limited next season, as an example. That is a slippery downhill that the players want to avoid because the ultimate result could be billions in lost payments. 

Plus, when the revenues have gone up – remember, MLB owners collected a record $10.7 billion in revenue last year – that hasn’t translated to increased salaries as the free-agent market has been tamped down in the last couple winters (aside from big boys like Bryce Harper or Gerrit Cole). 

There’s another factors, too: with coronavirus cases spiking in many states, including California, Texas and Arizona, the threats in several major league cities are heightened. Players are not willing to take less money for more risk. Not at all.

Players aren’t thirsty to help the owners in this situation. They certainly don’t want to set a precedent that they’ll bail owners out when times are tough. And based on the offers that have been made throughout this process, the players see little reason to trust that owners are negotiating in “good faith,” a term thrown around a lot during these negotiations.

Then there is the ongoing narrative from owners that owning the team doesn’t make them much money. Here’s the thing with that, though: the owners aren’t transparent with those earnings, so they want the players and fans to take their word for it. They will never – repeat, never – open those financial books to be dissected, so they will always want everyone to just trust their word. 

The Atlanta Braves are the only team that announces earnings as they’re part of the publicly traded Liberty Media Group. Last season, the team brought in $476 million in revenue, up 8% from the season before. The team’s payroll last season was about $144 million. Even if a portion of the leftover revenue is going to cover other expenses, there would still be a massive chunk of money remaining.

Owners could simply open all the books for inspection and put the distrust to rest. But again, they won’t do that, so there must be a reason they want to keep those financials private. 

These negotiations have further sewn player distrust of ownerships. Owners have tried to mask similar total payout offers, but the bottom line is always about the same. It seems owners are hoping no one notices. 

But unlike 1994 when the last labor stoppage happened, everyone is more educated now and the distrust is understandable.