Squeezing Amateurs

Jack Moore traces the disappearance of the bonus in dealing with amateur players:

I fear that a CBA that puts a hard ceiling on the incomes of foreign players will deter top-level talents from leaving their domestic leagues to come play in the United States or from picking up baseball altogether. I fear it will stifle the growth of baseball in countries new to the game, like Brazil, which showed promise in the World Baseball Classic but may not have the financial incentives to draw athletes away from sports like soccer or basketball.

Ownership never will eliminate the bonus, but owners have done their best to cap and restrict it. That’s all well and good for profit margins, but who else wins? Major league players won minor concessions like a shorter disabled list, more off days, and a higher minimum salary. The cost? Players at every lower level across the globe lost significant bargaining power, dynamic foreign stars like Shohei Otani may be dissuaded from bringing their talents to major league baseball and teams have fewer ways to upend the competitive balance through shrewd or innovative spending on amateur talent.

We’re all happy there won’t be a lockout or a work stoppage, but it’s otherwise hard to find the positives in the changes in the newest agreement. To protect the owners from their own thriftless ways, the agreement threatens to dilute baseball’s talent pool and divert money from the pockets of a largely poor work force into the well-lined coffers of the teams. That may be business as usual for MLB dating all the way back to Branch Rickey’s heyday, but it’s disheartening all the same.

Note that no team ever gave out a bonus under duress. It was the owners who didn’t want to spend the money to improve their teams that drove this, and the big spenders are happy to play along, because, like the Red Sox, they’ll bend the rules anyway. And like many unions, the MLBPA is about protecting the jobs of MLB players. Less competition from amateurs means longer MLB careers and more money for the membership. You would think the players would take the moral stand that allowed everyone to make as much money as possible. It’s a nice example of Bootleggers and Baptists.

I will make the call once again to end the draft and institute universal free agency, because it’s the way players and owners will make the most money and put the best product on the field.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2kAvIXn