The most important thing to know about the first proposals for baseball’s next collective bargaining agreement is that they were designed to be rejected. It’s the end of May, which means we have a little more than six months left before the current CBA expires at 11:59 pm ET on December 1. That’s when owners are expected to lock out players and begin setting up a second game for the 2020s, but if the last CBA negotiation is any indication of how this one month will turn out, negotiations will begin in earnest.
The purpose of the initial proposals released this week, by the MLB Players Association on Wednesday and MLB on Thursday, was to set a starting line where each would slowly, but surely, agree. We probably won’t see much movement for a while, but if owners and players start to get closer, they will point to their proposals this week as proof of their efforts to make a deal. In theory, in labor negotiations, you want to set your starting point far away from where you want to end up, so you can give up some of what you were asking for and end up with a good deal. So the fact that, according to Ben Clemens, “the competing sides do not speak the same language” at the moment does not mean that there is very little chance that we will not miss games next season. That said, it also doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can learn from the suggestions. Instead, as Ben explains, “these early offers reveal what each side cares most about. In his Friday episode, which you can find here, Ben does a great job of laying out everything you need to know about starting negotiations. You should definitely check that out.”
That’s the last time we’ll talk about baseball work in this week’s mailbag. Instead, we’ll be answering your questions on overlooked MVP candidates, how different baseball would be without Tommy John surgery, and which pitchers benefit from throwing first strikes. Before we do, I’d like to remind you that this post bag is only available to FanGraphs members. If you are not yet a Member and would like to continue learning, you can sign up for Membership here. It’s the best way to experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with tons of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question about a future mailbag, email me at mailbag@fangraphs.com.
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