Thanksgiving followed by the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays, plus a week of post-holiday syndrome, and although MLB has been suspended for more than a month, the two sides have never negotiated. According to Jeff Passan, a well-known ESPN reporter, the two sides are currently drafting a plan, and negotiations will begin as early as the end of January.
Pasan believes that the players' union should fight for its own rights and interests in the following three aspects, opposing brainless rot, making child labor and arbitration periods earn a little more, and raising the luxury tax line.
In terms of the luxury tax line, the 2021 season is $210 million, and the boss intends to raise this figure to 214 million in the 2022 season, and set at $220 million in the 2026 season ended by this labor agreement. If that's the case, a five-year rise of just 4.8 percent, the lawyer in charge of union negotiations could go home and farm.
Since the introduction of the luxury tax line in 1997, the second labor contract in 2003 more than doubled from six years earlier. It was $51 million in '97, $58.9 million in 1999, and $117 million in 2003. Now, almost 20 years later, the amount of 117 million times twice has not appeared.
In 2006, after the end of the previous collective agreement, the alliance's luxury tax threshold reached $136.5 million, and the subsequent collective agreement from 2007, at the end of 11 years, was 178 million, or 30.4% growth. The inflection point came in the 12-year-old collective bargaining agreement, which most people consider to be a mine-laying agreement, in which the union collapsed in the negotiations a decade ago, and the luxury tax line rose to only 189 million in five years, an increase of only 6.2%, not even as much as the previous season.
It is reported that the union side hopes that the luxury tax line will rise from $245 million to $260 million after the end of the new collective bargaining agreement, compared with 210 million last year, an increase of 23.8%, between the 30% increase in 2007 and the 11% increase in 17 years.
Passan's concern is not that the two sides will argue over this luxury tax line, in fact, if the boss meets the players' requirements, it will also mean that the players will have to pay something, such as expanding the scale of the playoffs. In this case, if the player makes another request, such as the implementation of a comprehensive designated strike system, the negotiations between the two sides may once again reach an impasse.
According to Pasan's speculation, if the two sides have not yet reached an agreement on the collective agreement on February 1, then the spring training is very likely to be postponed, and if the march 1 has not been negotiated, perhaps the MLB of the 2022 season will be another shrinkage season.
(Text/Geng Haoyang)