Month: October 2022

Minor League collective bargaining has begun

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Well, it’s actually happening. There is a minor-league sub-unit of the Major League Baseball Players Association, and they’ve officially entered into the collective bargaining process with the league, according to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. The two sides — the players once again represented by Bruce Meyer, the league by deputy commissioner Dan Halem — “made presentations for their respective sides,” which is how these things open, especially when there is no existing CBA to work off of.

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Mailbag: Changing minor-league team control

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It’s time for a mailbag. If you have a mailbag question you’d like to see answered, either respond to this newsletter email, or hit me up on @Marc_Normandin on Twitter. Here goes.

Payment and living conditions are likely big items, as well as getting spring training pay formalized, but what are the issues MiLB might try and address that might have drastic impact on team/player control for minor league players? -@ERolfPleiss

That… is a great question. Realistically, this first time out, I’m not sure if it will be a priority to change how long minor leaguers are under the control of one club. It becomes very hard to change things that have already been agreed upon in a prior collective bargaining agreement, and while this will be the first between minor-league players and MLB, there are already rules and regulations in place in the existing CBA between MLB’s players and the league.

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After authorizing All-Star Game strike, Dodger Stadium workers get new contract

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Recall this summer, when Dodger Stadium concession workers authorized a strike shortly before the 2022 MLB All-Star Game was held at that venue? It was a well-timed threat, and, due to UNITE HERE’s history of following through on such threats, one that was heeded immediately. The All-Star Game went on as planned, because the concessionaire these workers were employed by, Compass/Levy, agreed to listen to their demands after the strike was authorized.

While few details were released at the time in regards to what exactly the strike threat was aiming to achieve other than to get Compass/Levy to go back to the bargaining table — Los Angeles’ UNITE branch did not release specifics this time around like their Bay Area counterparts did at Oracle Park before the 2021 postseason — a new contract has been signed, and now we have a sense of some of what it was they were fighting for.

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It’s still easy to win 100 games when most MLB teams aren’t trying

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The 2022 MLB season was nearly a historic one in ways other than the performances of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. There were four 100-win teams, and four 100-loss teams, which equaled the records set and most recently matched, respectively, in 2019. In 2019, it was an issue, as I described at the time in a piece headline “Winning 100 games is easy when most MLB teams aren’t trying.”

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Mailbag: Separate bargaining units, salary floor

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Mailbag time. If you have a mailbag question you’d like to see answered, either respond to this newsletter email, or hit me up on @Marc_Normandin on Twitter. Let’s get to it.

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