*Photo from Fox Sports*
The 5th consecutive day of CBA negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA continued on, but with actually a little bit of progress. It's about time. The lengthy negotiation session on Friday produced progress regarding a draft lottery and amateur draft order, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic.
Both sides made progress on a potential draft lottery style system like the NBA and NHL as they try to cut down on deliberate tanking. They are still trying to figure out how many teams would be in the lottery, with MLB offering 4 and the MLBPA asking for 7, and how many seasons in a row a team can be in the lottery, but there is progress on that front.
Negotiations on Friday went for over 5 hours, with both sides meeting in multiple sessions throughout the day, and then meeting on their own side in between. Padres owner Ron Fowler, Rockies owner Dick Monfort, and Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner were among MLB's negotiating team, while Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, and Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller represented the players.
The meeting also included a one on one session between MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. Both spoke on how to move the negotiations forward, but there have not been many details released about that meeting. It was the first one on one meeting between Manfred and Clark since the two met in Arizona to discuss the 2020 season framework. Manfred did not meet with any players, just Clark.
After the meeting, with negotiations still ongoing, MLB announced the cancellation of spring training games through March 7, with the earliest possible start date being March 8. MLB had previously announced cancellation of games through March 5, and more cancellations are expected.
There are still many obstacles both sides need to clear, the biggest one being the CBT, or the luxury tax threshold. There has not been any talk on that in a good bit, with both sides still pretty far apart on that issue. Large gaps still remain in pre-arbitration bonus pool money, revenue sharing, and salary arbitration.
Negotiations will continue on Saturday as the MLB imposed deadline of February 28 looms large, for an unaffected regular season. At the time of this post being published, the negotiating session is still ongoing.
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