First Pitch: What is Your MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement Wish List?

10 Oct 2021

Quick discussion topic today: What do you want to see from MLB’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement this offseason?

My wish list consists of helping the little guys.

I’ve written about how MLB needs a salary cap/salary floor/total revenue sharing to even out the playing field for small market teams.

An interesting observation from my article the other day about rebuilding times for MLB teams: Look at how many small market teams went on extended losing streaks, starting around 1993-1995 in the years surrounding the last strike.

I feel like there was an obvious problem, and MLB patched over a broken leg with a band-aid. Ever since that point, we’ve seen a massive divide in the league that is only getting bigger.

I believe that is a massive long-term issue for MLB, rather than their focus on game time. I don’t think any fan really cares about the length of the game, as long as they know their team has a fair chance in the league. As a source for this idea, the NFL has longer games than baseball, and less actual action during those games. You never see the NFL proposing gimmicks to shorten the game time, because people are going to watch regardless.

On the player side, I would love to see minor league players getting treated like human beings and paid more than poverty wages.

This is just the right thing to do. I’m not even going to argue this from a development perspective. These teams worth billions shouldn’t need incentive to pay their employees a living wage.

And the whole “chasing the dream” crap is just a line used to justify exploiting so many people.

We’re all chasing dreams.

That should never be a reason to pay over a hundred people $10,000 or less per year for a full-time job.

What do you want to see from the new CBA this offseason?