Meeting in Jupiter, MLB and players union remain on different planets

Faced with a deadline to salvage an on-time Opening Day, MLB and the Players Association figured to attack this week with a sense of urgency missing from the previous 2 1/2 months of these protracted labor negotiations.

Instead, after Day 2, it’s looking like business as usual. Moving from New York to Jupiter, Florida, the location appears to be the only thing that has changed.

What emerged from Tuesday’s meetings, which again featured face-to-face bargaining sessions as well as each side’s own discussions stretched over the four hours, was more of the same. Small adjustments to a few economic issues -- some perceived to be in the wrong direction -- re-establishing where the lines are drawn and no meaningful conversation about the competitive balance tax, according to sources.

At this rate, maybe a new CBA could eventually get done -- only it will be around the All-Star break. The two sides will meet again Wednesday, honoring the pledge of doing so daily, but even both can agree there needs to be greater movement toward a deal very shortly.

Baseball doesn’t have the luxury of time right now. That’s already been squandered since Rob Manfred’s Dec. 2 lockout, with the two sides having only a half-dozen meetings before showing up Monday in Jupiter. And even those mostly involved delivering proposals that weren’t taken seriously by the opposite seat at the table. No wonder this situation has deteriorated into the second-longest work stoppage in the sport’s history.

This week, however, was supposed to be different. Both sides were going in with the understanding that a deal likely would need to be struck by Feb. 28 to preserve the March 31 start date for Opening Day. Manfred already had said that a month of spring training -- give or take a few days -- was necessary to adequately prepare for the regular season, especially after what everyone learned from the truncated midsummer camps during the pandemic-influenced 2020 season.

So far, the glacial pace of these talks isn’t helping with that scenario. On Tuesday, the union’s latest proposal generated a similar reaction to the one they presented last Thursday, as MLB felt it moved the negotiations backward in some areas.

The Players Association requested a minimum salary of $775,000 for the CBA’s first year, with subsequent annual increases of $30,000 up to $895,000 in the fifth year. To date, MLB has offered two different options, a flat figure of $630,000 that is non-binding or a three-tier system that starts at $615,000, jumps to $650,000 the following year and $725,000 the next (teams would not be permitted to go above those numbers).

The union also proposed that 75% of players with two to three years service time become eligible for arbitration -- down from their last proposal of 80% -- a number that MLB sees as a non-starter. As for the draft lottery, after MLB increased the number of picks Monday to four from three, the Players Association countered Tuesday by going down from eight to seven.

Given the lack of significant progress in the first two days of this critical week, MLB again suggested bringing in a federal mediator, as it did back on Feb. 4, according to multiple reports. And once again, the request was rejected by the Players Association.

Swapping proportionate offers at this stage isn’t going to beat any deadlines, and the brinkmanship displayed by each side is placing regular-season games in further jeopardy. While Manfred insisted that the lockout was designed to hasten the pace for a deal, it’s had the opposite effect as MLB already wiped out the first week of spring training games, with more cancellations to the exhibition schedule likely to be announced before too long. Even when a new agreement is struck, camps are expected to need a minimum of another three days before opening, and potentially longer.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.