My screaming into the wind about the CBA

 So, we are approaching the end of the current CBA with the prospective of the lockout if a new CBA is not finalized by Wednesday at 11:59 pm.

So I am going to put my two cents in even you I may be the only one who hears my screaming.

1. Luxury tax ceiling - I am in agreement with the rumors that this should be higher.  I would say a 10% bump would be reasonable.  

2. Increase of teams in the playoffs to 14.  Agan, a great idea as it keeps more teams in contention longer.

3. Lottery for top draft picks - Again, I like this.  Teams shouldn't be incentivized to tank.  It works for the NBA and it would work here.

4. Institution of a universal DH.  Great idea.  

So far so good, right?  OK, let's look at some of the things I don't agree with and how we could fix them.

A. The MLBPA has long wanted a salary floor.   This would mean that teams would be expected to spend a certain amount (say $100 million) on salaries each year.   The result would generally be that teams would have to sign enough free agents and/or pay their existng players enough money to reach this threshold.  My counter proposal is this:

    1. Institute a 'soft' salary floor.  That is, teams must COMMIT $100 million in salary each year.  That would include offers made to players under their control (not free agent offers).   Thus if the Indians offered Shane Bieber $100 million for 5 years that $20 million for 2022 would count towards that $100 million floor.  Beiber does not have to accept that offer but, nevertheless, the Indians have made a good faith offer that, if accepted, would lock them into paying him long-term and lock Bieber into being an Indian for a long time.

    2. Along with #1, I would move the trigger to arbitration to 2 years, eliminating the super 2 category and making arbitration more uniform.  I have long believed that good players like Bieber should be paid early.  I would also eliminate arbitration hearings and replace that whole process with a performance-based salary system for these players that would kick in after their first 2 years.

    3, I would increase the starting salary in the majors to $750,000 a year.  Teams that want to stack their roster with players with less service time would be disincentivized to do so as it would cost them almost $200,000 more per player on their roster to use rookies.   This would also benefit the rookies.

Let me be clear about one thing: the idea of a hard floor is a non-starter.  As I have seen it expressed by agents and the MLBPA, this is just a ploy to get teams to overspend on mediocre free agents who are being left out of the lucrative free agent market.  These players are being left out because they are not good enough for the money they are asking for.   Also, the soft floor might, indeed, cost the best free agents money as they would likely not hit the open market as soon.   But I don't give a crap about that.  This floor should be an incentive for teams to pay their homegrown players earlier and more than they do now.  Making arbitration sooner would prompt that to happen, as well.

Small market teams should use the soft floor to invest in their own players, not to fill the pockets of mediocre free agents or create bidding wars to make the best free agents more highly paid.  

B. As mentioned before on this blog, the Rule 5 draft should be eliminated.  It should be replaced by the following:

    1. Players signed before their 19th birthday would become minor league free agents if not placed on the 40 man roster by the December 1st before their 24th birthday.

    2. Players signed before their 23rd birthday would become minor league free agents if not placed on a 40-man roster before the December 1st before their 25th birthday.

Latino kids would get the full benefit of up to 8 years of development and US college kids would get 3-4 years of development time, appropriate as they are more physically mature and more highly trained.

C. There would no longer be a 4th option year granted for any player.   Eliminating this would allow players to reach minor league free agency sooner (27 for younger players, 28 for older players) even if they were placed on the 40 man roster at the end of the periods described above.

D. Teams losing top free agents should be granted a supplemental pick after the 5th round of the draft plus an addition of $250,000 to their bonus pool above what it should be based on all their draft slots in the first 10 rounds, even if they did not make a qualifying offer.   If they made a qualifying offer they should get both the supplemental pick in the existing agreement AND the supplemental 5th round pick plus the bonus pool bump.  This proposal would not seriously impact the nature of the draft but would give the teams losing quality players to free agency something more to help them work with to rebuild more quickly.    Plus it would be more money in the pool to give to younger players.

E. As part of the lottery process.   All teams that failed to make the playoffs would be allowed to sign draftees in rounds 11-20 for up to $200,000 with it not counting against their bonus pool cap.  This, again, allows the poorer teams compete better by spending more on the draft which, as we all know, if the poor man's way of developing big league talent.  

F. I am for NOT for an international draft.  The international draft cap works fine right now and I would even strengthen the penalties for violating this cap.  

These are just some of my comments.   I honestly feel that the agents and the highly paid players should set the framework for these changes but that the have-not teams should fill in the details.  The goal should still be to level the playing field as much as we can without true tanking going on.