The first shot of the MLB offseason has already been fired.
MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark issued a response to some recent comments made by Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, in which he hints at potential collusion and obstruction between front offices and GMs around the league:
Statement of MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark pic.twitter.com/Xk5gsJQuGM
— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) November 6, 2019
Clark suggests that Anthopoulos' comments–in which Anthopoulos states that the Braves have made contact with 27 other teams about free agency strategy–are an indicator of clear “Club coordination,” and he calls for an immediate investigation into the matter.
This is yet another instance that will only serve to increase tension between the Commissioner's Office and the MLBPA. Clark was extremely critical of the free agency model last winter after a number of players were forced to sign one-year deals below their purported market value.
As noted by Ken Rosenthal in a recent article for The Athletic, the MLB and the MLBPA are a long way off on a number of issues, including and especially free agency:
Baseball proposed a deadline for signing players to multiyear deals, perhaps at the end of the winter meetings. The union, opposing any such restrictions on the market, would prefer ideas similar to the ones Boras suggested to Drellich — draft-pick incentives, luxury-tax exemptions, and so on.
According to sources, baseball was willing to negotiate the particulars of the signing deadline, perhaps making it only for contracts of three years or longer so that unsigned players would not only be limited to one-year deals. But as is the case with so many issues — including larger, more meaningful economic issues — the two sides are not even speaking the same language.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is set to expire after the 2021 season, and there are concerns (on both sides) that a strike is imminent.
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