The MLB lockout may have ended all the way back in the month of March, but that doesn’t mean that labor negotiations are done, nor does it mean that everything is all smoothed out between the league and the Players Association.
When the lockout ended, the league and the Players Association had still yet to agree on one thing, that being the international draft that MLBPA had proposed during earlier negotiations.
This would have eliminated the qualifying offer that teams offer impending free agents, which allows them to receive a draft pick if the player departs in free agency.
But according to Chelsea Janes, the two sides are still far apart on that issue, which is not a good sign with the deadline being today.
Today is the deadline for MLB/MLBPA to agree to an international draft and do away with the qualifying offer system or not, in which case the QOs stay. Last vestige of those CBA negotiations.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 25, 2022
Tensions Remain High Between MLB, MLBPA
It’s unfortunate that disagreements keep taking place between the league and the Players Association.
Ultimately, it appears that they have not gotten any closer to agreeing on something.
It’s ultimately going to take both sides trying to come to the middle to reach an agreement, and there doesn’t appear to have been any of that over the past few months.
While we don’t have to worry about another lockout happening until 2026 at the earliest, this will be one of the major sticking points of CBA negotiations when the time comes to reach a new agreement.
There’s still plenty of time to fix this before the current CBA expires, but it’s frustrating to see that even after the lockout, there is still a lot of tension between MLB and the Players Association.
Obviously, it’s highly unlikely that an agreement is reached today on an international draft, but we’ll see what happens as the day progresses.
