The Major League Baseball Players Association made its latest bargaining proposal Wednesday, this one designed around giving players more time in the big leagues.
The MLBPA pitched league owners on increasing roster sizes from 26 to 28 for the first 15 days of the season, preventing established big leaguers from being overworked early in the season and giving players more opportunities to land on Opening Day rosters if they impress in spring training.
The union also proposed allowing placement on the 60-day injured list, which opens additional spots on the 40-man roster, as soon as the November tender deadline, three months earlier than under the current system. The MLBPA also said it made presentations on earlier Rule 5 draft eligibility, as well as service time and salary protections for pitchers who are the victim of roster manipulation by being sent to the minors over the All-Star break or after they meet certain performance thresholds in a given game.
Under the MLBPA's proposal, a player's in-season optional assignments would be reduced from five to three.
This is the MLBPA's third formal set of presentations in negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, which will expire in five months. Its principal economic proposal, on May 27, called for increases to the minimum salary, an expansion of the pre-arbitration bonus pool, earlier free agency and increases to the luxury-tax threshold, among other items. Last week, the MLBPA proposed a ban on prop betting on individual players to help combat harassment from disgruntled gamblers, suggesting a joint lobbying effort with MLB to pursue a prohibition on prop betting at sportsbooks and with daily fantasy operators.
MLB is proposing a cap-and-floor system similar to that of the NHL, a major sticking point for the union, as well as an international draft and a massive reduction in domestic amateur signing bonuses. As part of its reserve-system proposal last week, MLB also agreed to minimum-salary increases, earlier free agency and the elimination of the qualifying-offer system, while also restricting the size of contracts teams can offer in free agency.
As part of its proposal on Wednesday, the MLBPA asked that players have access to club-controlled performance data, adding in a release that it would "increase transparency and allow players to track their work with the same information management is using."
