Owners back off international draft to move CBA talks forward
The current collective bargaining agreement for Major League Baseball expires on Thursday and one of the major sticking points has been the creation of an international draft. The owners want one, since it would artificially lower the amount of money that international players sign for (just like the amateur draft we all know and love). It would lower it even beyond the current bonus pools that teams are given to spend on international amateurs (that a number of teams exceed anyway).
Owners like that because they hate spending money. But that’s exactly why the MLB Players Association doesn’t want it, because it doesn’t want anything that will prevent its members (or future members) from earning money. And that’s just what the international draft would do.
It appeared that talks had come to a standstill — that is until Monday night, when Ken Rosenthal sent out several tweets that demonstrated a possible reversal on the part of the owners.
Sources: Owners have backed off the international draft as a requirement for a new collective-bargaining agreement.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 29, 2016
Sources: Owners’ willingness to back off international draft stemmed from desire to move talks forward. Has yet to achieve desired effect.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 29, 2016
If that’s true, that’s a pretty big concession on the part of the owners, though it’s worth noting that they’ve only reportedly “backed off” the international draft requirement. They haven’t said that it won’t happen or that they’ve given up on it, which is likely why talks haven’t moved forward yet. When you smear ice cream on someone’s shirt, cleaning it off doesn’t automatically make them forgive you or like you more. It seems like it might take more than this “concession” to get the Players Association to play ball again, and rightly so.
While we don’t specifically know what led to the owners’ concession, we do know that yesterday the MLB Players Association invited Latin American players to come to the negotiations and speak about their opposition to the international draft.
Sources: A significant number of Latin American players are expected at MLB/MLBPA bargaining session today to fight the international draft.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 28, 2016
Latin representation at union meetings has been an issue in the past. An issue as divisive as the int'l draft spurred interest from players.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 28, 2016
This is a bold play by the union. By flying in so many Latin players, the implication is it is putting a line in the sand on an int’l draft.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 28, 2016
A line in the sand is significant, because it shows that the Players Association isn’t going to back down on this. And it’s also significant that Latin American players are getting the chance to represent themselves and make their voices heard. Thus far, they haven’t been shy about their opinions on the international draft on social media.
Here’s a video from Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians:
A video posted by No Draft Internacional (@iplbaseball) on Oct 30, 2016 at 5:45pm PDT
And so did his Indians teammate Carlos Carrasco:
A video posted by Iplvenezuela (@iplvenezuela) on Nov 1, 2016 at 3:58pm PDT
Here’s one from 2016 AL Rookie of the Year finalist Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees:
A video posted by No Draft Internacional (@iplbaseball) on Nov 1, 2016 at 1:18pm PDT
Highly prized free agent Edwin Encarnacion also shared his feelings:
A video posted by Juan Baez (@jbaez_83) on Oct 24, 2016 at 6:54pm PDT
And that’s just a small sampling. Nelson Cruz, Wilson Contreras, Miguel Sano, Jose Reyes, Pedro Strop, and others have all released videos on social media in opposition to the international draft. With the owners possibly backing off the requirement of an international draft, it appears that the involvement of Latin American players has made a difference.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher