On the day after progress was made on a side issue, baseball owners and players proved again Saturday what happens when they try to touch core economic issues: anger.
Both sides made package proposals Saturday that led to so much frustration that the talks themselves joined Opening Day as jeopardized.
The players began the day by making their most comprehensive proposal, which included their first movement on the competitive balance tax since the owners began the lockout Dec. 2. They mirrored the owners’ past movement on the CBT: $2 million on three of the five years. The owners came back with adding $1 million to year two and dropping the first-tier tax rate from 50% to 45%, which still exceeds 20%, the one in the expired CBA. The two sides remain far apart on both thresholds and rates.
