MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says 'of course' he's worried about repeat of 1994 labor stoppage
The tone of the ongoing MLB collective bargaining agreement negotiations hasn’t been what you would describe as sunny. Then league commissioner Rob Manfred accepted the darkest comparison possible.
Speaking with reporters amid the MLB owners meetings, Manfred was asked if he was worried about a repeat of the 1994-95 labor stoppage. His response, via ESPN's Jorge Castillo:
"Of course I do," Manfred said Wednesday during the owners meetings. "We want to make an agreement. We made a proposal on one set of topics. At the outset of negotiations, I went and said myself, 'We're open to whatever ideas people have, but we need a realistic framework that addresses the fans' concerns about competitive balance.' You just can't ignore that financial penalties have not gotten it done for us."
For those in need of a refresher, MLB players elected to strike during the 1994 season in response to the owners proposing a salary cap for the next CBA, the failure of a Senate bill that would have revoked MLB’s antitrust exemption and the owners’ withholding of $8 million from their pension plan.
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The strike led to the cancelation of the 1994 MLB postseason and would have seen MLB use replacement players had future Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor not issued an injunction against the league on the players’ behalf. The ruling led to a shortened 1995 season being played under the terms of the expired CBA.
It was a historically ugly fight that saw baseball’s popularity diminish until the 1998 home run race (which obviously wound up having its own issues).
Now, MLB owners are again pushing for a salary cap, which has been a non-starter for the MLB Players Association for decades.
The league reportedly issued its first proposal to the players last week, with a $245.3 million salary cap, $171.2 million salary floor and 50-50 revenue split with the players. Per Craig Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus, nine teams are currently above that cap, while 12 teams are below the floor, with the required salary adjustments favoring the league by $18.7 million.
The MLBPA predictably didn’t like the proposal, with interim executive director Bruce Meyer releasing a statement invoking the 1994 strike. He took another shot at the proposal on Monday, via The Athletic:
“I thought they would try harder to make it look good, and they didn’t even do that,” Meyer said on a video conference call with reporters.
He also claimed that had MLB’s proposal been in place for this season, the union estimates the players would have lost over $500 million.
Without a salary cap, MLB has used a luxury tax system that has become harsher in recent years in response to larger spending by the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers. Last season saw the Dodgers pay a tax of $169 million for their World Series champion team, giving it a total price of $586.7 million between payroll and tax.
Manfred said Wednesday that the tax system had failed to address competitive concerns, via ESPN:
"We have tried, mightily, over several rounds of bargaining to use a competitive balance tax to address competitive concerns," Manfred said. "And sometimes you've got to admit you failed."
Via Fangraphs’ projected payroll numbers, MLB’s current division leaders rank first (Dodgers), sixth (Atlanta Braves), 17th (Seattle Mariners), 19th (Milwaukee Brewers), 28th (Tampa Bay Rays) and 29th (Cleveland Guardians).
