With almost two full seasons left on the current collective bargaining agreement, Main League Baseball is already bracing for a labor conflict.
That negotiations are making headlines in February — earlier than spring coaching is in full swing — says a lot in regards to the tensions simmering beneath the floor.
A few of it’s circumstantial. As soon as the common season begins, consideration will shift to precise baseball relatively than the looming labor battle. However Yankees proprietor Hal Steinbrenner simply mentioned the quiet half out loud, making it clear that house owners are pushing for a hard salary cap.
The twist? He’d solely help it with a caveat: a mandated wage flooring.
Whereas the baseball world fixated on the Yankees’ newest tweak to their facial hair policy, Steinbrenner was making precise headlines. One of many sport’s strongest house owners overtly backed a wage flooring — an admission that would reshape labor negotiations way over any sideburn rule ever will.
“I’ve been on the report already saying that I might take into account supporting a cap, relying on what the cap is and contingent on the truth that there’s additionally a flooring in order that golf equipment that I really feel aren’t spending sufficient cash on payroll to enhance their crew must spend extra,” Steinbrenner told NJ.com’s Randy Miller.
The Yankees have been among the many prime three in payroll in 16 of the 17 seasons since Steinbrenner grew to become the controlling proprietor in 2008. Final season, they have been considered one of 4 groups hit with the stiffest Competitive Balance Tax penalties, paying $62.5 million whereas additionally seeing their first-round draft choose drop 10 slots resulting from exceeding the highest tax threshold.
“The priority to me is—I’ve mentioned this until I’m blue within the face, and I needed to change my numbers as a result of occasions have modified from 10 years in the past—however we have now nice individuals right here,” Steinbrenner said, via Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. “We now have an excellent participant growth system, good younger gamers which have come up. Ought to I really want a $300 million-plus payroll to win a championship? Does having an enormous payroll actually improve my probabilities that a lot of successful a championship? I’m undecided there’s a robust correlation there. Having mentioned that, we’re the New York Yankees. We all know what our followers count on. We’re all the time going to be among the many highest in payroll. That’s not going to alter, and positively didn’t change this 12 months. We’re proper there.”
That is the paradox of Steinbrenner’s feedback. He’s arguing that huge payrolls don’t essentially equate to championships — and up to date historical past backs him up. Within the wild-card period (since 1995), 21 of 30 World Sequence winners ranked within the prime 10 in Opening Day payroll, however since 2009, solely three groups within the prime three have gained all of it: the 2018 Crimson Sox and the 2020 and 2024 Dodgers.
