Candaele/Dreier: A tool to improve baseball performance has become a weapon against the players
From Kelly Candaele and SABR member Peter Dreier at The Nation on October 7, 2019:
Major League Baseball faces a crisis that could lead to its first lockout or strike in 25 years. The last strike began on August 12, 1994, and continued for 232 days, forcing the cancellation of the World Series and the first three weeks of the 1995 season. The current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t expire until after the 2021 season. But as fans gather to watch the World Series this October, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and the team owners have already begun meeting.
Some of the issues in contention—including minimum salaries, the number of years a team may “own” a player before he can sign with another team, and how revenue sharing among teams is spent to the detriment of players—led to strikes or owner lockouts in the past. For the first time in decades, players are talking openly about the possibility of another strike if the owners continue to exploit the serious shortcomings in the current contract.
Read the full article here: https://www.thenation.com/article/mlb-moneyball-labor-unions/
Originally published: October 8, 2019. Last Updated: October 8, 2019.