Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription required) reported on Wednesday that the MLB owners proposed a salary minimum of $100 million per team in a face-to-face meeting in Denver, Colo.
It was MLB’s first proposal to the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) in regards to economics in a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The current CBA expires on December 1, 2021.
The problem is that the MLBPA will never accept the preposterous proposal from MLB for one reason.
The MLBPA would probably be in favor of raising the minimum salary to $100 million per team and even support the idea that the higher payroll teams that are over a luxury tax would have their luxury tax dollars to help pay for the lower teams’ payroll.
However, they will never, in a million years, agree to the deal for one reason: a luxury tax threshold that would plummet by 12 percent.
Currently, the luxury tax threshold is at $210 million and, according to Cot’s Contracts, only one team (the reigning World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers) was above it at the beginning of the season ($262.1 million).
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That new $185 million threshold would mean that the New York Yankees ($207.6 million), Houston Astros ($206.9 million), San Diego Padres ($205.5 million), Boston Red Sox ($205.4 million), Philadelphia Phillies ($202.4 million), Los Angeles Angels ($198.1 million), New York Mets ($196.6 million), and Washington Nationals ($194.4 million) would all be above the luxury tax threshold.
The teams that were below $100 million on their 40-man roster at the beginning of the season were the Pittsburgh Pirates ($62.9 million), the Cleveland Indians ($63.2 million), Baltimore Orioles ($76.6 million), Miami Marlins ($78.5 million), Tampa Bay Rays ($83 million), Seattle Mariners ($92.3 million), and Detroit Tigers ($97.8 million).
In other words, nine teams would be over the proposed luxury tax threshold and seven teams would be below the salary floor.
According to Rosenthal and Drellich, there would be four tiers of the luxury tax threshold at undetermined levels but there is no way the MLBPA would agree to that number going down by 12 percent.
It is obvious that this was the first proposal in what will, likely, be many as there will be a lot of things that will be on the table in negotiations for the new CBA, including service time needed until free agency is achieved and a lot of gameplay rules (universal DH, pitch clock, etc.)