Author: Marc Normandin

WNBA’s CBA deadline looms, USL’s already passed, and the PHPA struck

The WNBPA and USLPA might want to take a cue from the PHPA and their recently successful — and brief — ECHL strike.

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There has been and continues to be a whole lot of discussion about the labor battles that might occur when the MLB collective bargaining agreement expires in December, and for good reason. Comparatively, though, that story is on the backburner, as the players and owners haven’t actually started to bargain for real, other than laying out some preliminary goals before the true negotiations take place.

Meanwhile, the Women’s National Basketball Association and the WNB Players Association have already blown through an extension on their current CBA and are days away from another deadline without any resolution. United Soccer League Championship, or USL Championship, has been at odds with its players for 494 days now — the union and league have been bargaining for their new CBA since August of 2024, and it expired with the coming of this new year. And that’s for a league where the players are hoping to make a livable wage, not “millions,” mirroring the fight of MLB’s minor-league players from earlier this decade, where they simply wanted to be paid as if their job was a job, and not have to worry about their next meal or their living conditions.

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Notes: White Sox signing, WNBPA strike authorization, NWSL cap issue

The White Sox made a signing that is both sensible and very White Sox, the WNBPA authorized a strike if necessary, and the NWSL is dealing with salary cap and star player concerns.

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The White Sox signed Nippon Professional Baseball’s Munetaka Murakami over the weekend, after he was posted by the Yakult Swallows last month. The deal is for two years and $34 million, which might not sound like all that much when you think of all the headlines about his prodigious power and his being just 25 years old, but there are genuine concerns with his ability to succeed in MLB, concerns which are obviously shared widely given he ended up signing with the White Sox for this specific contract.

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Notes: Pirates trying, WNBA bargaining

What if the Pirates actually are trying? The WNBA certainly isn’t.

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The Pirates tried to sign Kyle Schwarber, and I’m tempted to believe this was a genuine effort. That this needs to be said at all should explain quite a bit about how the Pirates have operated under current owner Bob Nutting: a four-year, $125 million contract offer from them has more than a whiff of “we tried” to it, after all, and nothing in their past suggests they would actually attempt to bring him aboard.

That is, unless, the conditions for their continued profiteering have changed. And sure enough, that’s what seems to be going on. Here’s what I wrote at Baseball Prospectus at the end of November, regarding rumors about the Pirates and Marlins being willing to spend, and their relation to Rob Manfred’s desire for an NFL-style pooling of local broadcast revenues that would lead to a revamped, competition-balancing revenue-sharing system:

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The WNBA refuses to admit that the grift is over

In two days, the deadline for the WNBA and the WNBPA to come to terms on a new CBA will be here, and no agreement seems to be in sight.

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It’s November 28. The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement expired at the end of October, but the deadline for it to actually end was pushed to November 30, a month later, to give the league and the players time to continue to bargain before the seemingly inevitable happens. We’re two days out from that date now, and things aren’t looking great as far as resolutions go.

The WNBA recently made a proposal that generated headlines, with a new maximum salary for players of $1.1 million. That might not sound like much, but remember that players in the W aren’t pulling in what their NBA counterparts are — a $1.1 million maximum salary is a massive jump from the current max of just under $250,000. The problem, as multiple outlets have brought up in the week-plus since this offer, is that the salary the WNBA is offering in this proposal isn’t actually for $1.1 million.

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Thoughts on MLB’s 2025-2026 offseason

Some thoughts on what to look out for this offseason, as MLB and the MLBPA enter the final year of the current collective bargaining agreement.

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A little bit of end-of-season collecting of loose ends here, to start the offseason. We’re entering the final season of the current collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the Players Association, so while there are always trends or happenings to watch out for, that’s even more the case in this scenario — what can be gleaned from the last full offseason before MLB decides to go lockout mode in 13 months?

First, there is going to be a lot of discussion about the Dodgers, and if they are ruining baseball because they spent a ton of money. There is actually some nuance to this discussion — I’ve already seen a whole lot of everything-is-a-nail style arguments about their spending both in terms of those who are against it and those who support it — that is being missed, but here’s where I stand.

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MLBPA’s Tony Clark talks prop bets

The NBA betting scandal and arrests, combined with a wave of MLB’s own in-season issues, has the MLBPA reconsidering prop bets.

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Full disclosure here, but I’m not big on the whole legal sports betting thing, at least not in the way that society has decided to implement it. I love a Las Vegas trip and all, I have an ongoing poker game in my life, and a local casino can be a great time, but those are locations designated specifically for this degenerate [complimentary] activity — being able to bet from anywhere at all times from the supercomputer in your pocket is terrible even for people without gambling issues.

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Notes: WPBL announcements, WNBA CBA battle, Stop Falling For It

A new league makes announcements, WNBA bargaining is getting heated, please stop assuming that the Dodgers will force a salary cap, and more from my recent writing.

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The WPBL announces its first four cities, sort of

The Women’s Pro Baseball League will play its inaugural season in 2026, and used this week where baseball fans are quietly waiting for the World Series to make some announcements. First, the first four cities were selected, and they make a whole lot of sense: New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. All four are historic MLB cities with massive media markets and fan bases, which should give them a built-in edge when it comes to getting attention.

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90s kids remember Bud Selig, George F. Will, and Japanese baseball

Deeper looks at two freelance pieces I wrote this week,

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I had two reasons to dip into the past this week in my freelance writing. At Baseball Prospectus, I wrote about how the present-day Red Sox and Dodgers, at the least, seem open to the idea of Rob Manfred’s centralized broadcast revenue and TV rights plan, which would allow MLB’s revenue-sharing to look more like that of the NFL’s — albeit without a salary cap, since, as has been discussed before, that’s just not likely at least during this round of bargaining, not if the owners want 2028’s broadcast negotiations to pay off as they hope and need them to.

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Notes: Pirates frustration, Mets collapse

The Pirates are a joke even to their players, the Mets collapse isn’t as much of a joke as it seems, and what I’ve been working on around the internet of late.

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Pirates players are as frustrated as their fans

If you’ve ever wondered whether players on a team like the Pirates are as tired of losing as their fans are, well, look no further than a report that published this week. (Though, don’t actually look, as it’s from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the News Guild members of which remain on strike.)

To be fair, you don’t actually need to read the story to get a sense of it, if you know anything about an organization that has lied to the public about their finances and spending capabilities, and straight-up misled its own front office about the available budget. Basically, players are frustrated enough that they spoke, on the record, about their lack of belief in the organization to do what needs to be done. Meaning, to acquire players that can help them be better than they are, which is not a very good team — one wasting the absurd potential of Paul Skenes.

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Notes: Manfred confirms reported broadcast deals, playoffs too big update

Rob Manfred speaks on broadcasting, the playoff picture is still bugging me, and assorted work of mine from around the internet.

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Manfred acknowledges rumored broadcasting deals

Speaking at a Front Office Sports conference Tuesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spoke up about the rumored broadcast deals that the league was working on with the likes of ESPN, NBC, and more. Awful Announcing has the details:

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