Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Let’s break down the curveball MLB threw at the players union yesterday.
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This could be the last hurdle
For a brief moment yesterday, it seemed like the interminable MLB lockout might finally be resolved. The sides even had a plan to squeeze in a full 162-game season if a deal was reached by the end of the day. But that didn’t happen, and so the league canceled another slate of games.
The issue that derailed the negotiations was MLB’s insistence on adding a draft for international prospects. The union wants the league to eliminate direct draft-pick compensation to teams that lose free agents who had been extended a qualifying offer. MLB said it would drop draft compensation if the players agreed to the international draft. The players didn’t go for that.
Union leader Max Scherzer tweeted that the late introduction of the international draft into the negotiations was MLB “muddying the waters & deflecting blame.” The players offered to sign a deal including everything but the international draft/qualifying offer swap and spend the season negotiating what the draft would look like, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports. If the sides couldn’t agree on the structure of the draft by the fall, qualifying offers would return. The league didn’t go for that.
If this truly is the thing that’s standing in the way of baseball games being played, it’s important to understand exactly what the league is proposing and why the players are opposed to it.
Under the current international signing system, players are free agents. They are free to sign with any team once they turn 16. (The signing period has traditionally started July 2, but the last two periods have opened in January after the pandemic threw a wrench in the calendar.) Teams are allotted a certain amount of money that they are allowed to spend on international free agents during a given signing period (a “bonus pool”). Teams are not allowed to exceed their bonus pools but can acquire additional bonus pool money via trade. Each team is allotted at least $4.75 million and up to $5.75 million, depending on things that are not worth getting into here.
This year, dozens of players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba signed for at least $1 million. That’s life-changing money, and instituting a draft would inevitably suppress the earnings of players.
“It’s going to affect us a lot, because there will be many young people who used to give them the opportunity to get a bonus and with the draft it will not be the same,” Fernando Tatís Jr. told a Dominican newspaper.
The current international system is far from perfect, though. In the Dominican, the system relies heavily on people called buscones, who train players, put them in front of scouts and, ultimately, pocket a hefty portion of their signing bonus (usually about a quarter, but sometimes up to half). It’s a system ripe for abuse. “In some ways, it's like human trafficking,” sports attorney Arturo Mancano told Time in 2010.
Here’s what MLB is proposing, according to MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince:
- A 20-round draft (over 600 picks, when accounting to competitive balance selections)
- Guaranteed signing bonuses assigned to each draft slot ($5.25 million for the top pick)
- A draft order not tied to team record
- Draft picks can be traded
- No limit on signing undrafted players
The league says that, in total, more money would be spent on the 600-plus draft picks than on the 1,000 players signed during the last pre-pandemic signing period. But at least 42 players signed for over $1 million in this year’s signing period, according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez. More total money may be distributed to international players under the draft, but would the 42nd player taken get a guaranteed signing bonus of upward of $1 million? Those are the kinds of questions the players will have to have answered before they reach a deal.
The best of Sports Illustrated
For today’s Daily Cover, Rohan Nadkarni spoke with Nikola Jokić, an NBA superstar who doesn’t seek celebrity status:
“After starting the year 18–18, Denver has gone 22–8, including winning 12 of its last 14 games. And it’s all been powered by the most unassuming superstar in the world, one who receives far more attention on the court than off of it. One who never even dreamed of being an All-Star or a league MVP.”
Tom Verducci explains why there should still be optimism about a deal between MLB and the MLBPA. … Gary Gramling and Conor Orr ranked the top 221 NFL free agents available. … Conor also wrote about why the Commanders’ trade for Carson Wentz reeks of desperation. … Michael Shapiro looks at how Luka Dončić has stepped his game up after the Mavs made the surprising decision to dump Kristaps Porziņģis at the deadline.
SI’s Morning Madness newsletter is coming back. Our daily NCAA tournament newsletter starts up again on Monday, March 14, with all the post–Selection Sunday takes. Sign up for free at SI.com/newsletters.
Around the Sports World
A 25-year-old woman has sued Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, saying he is her father. … Former Indiana basketball player Maurice Creek detailed his experience fleeing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. … Chelsea’s Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, has been sanctioned by the U.K. government, which will have wide-ranging immediate impacts for the club. … The ACC suspended Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim for today’s game against Duke after he punched a Florida State player. … Five suspects were arrested in connection with the 2012 shooting death of boxer Héctor Camacho. … The Athletic’s Zac Keefer has a detailed account of Carson Wentz’s breakup with the Colts.
The top 5...
… shots from last night:
5. T.J. Oshie’s one-timer to tie the game with 0.8 seconds left
4. Nikola Jokić’s fancy footwork
3. Rider senior Dwight Murray Jr.’s floater with just over seven seconds left to upset top-seeded Iona in the MAAC men’s quarterfinals
2. Nendah Tarke’s buzzer beater seals Coppin State’s upset over Howard in the MEAC men’s quarterfinals
1. Darius Maddox’s pull-up three at the buzzer for Virginia Tech against Clemson in the ACC men’s tourney
SIQ
Legendary MLB owner Bill Veeck and an investment group purchased a controlling stake in the White Sox on this day in 1959. The marketing innovator was the son of a Cubs executive and made his first major foray into baseball by purchasing the minor league Milwaukee Brewers. He went on to purchase three big league teams: the White Sox, the Cleveland franchise and the St. Louis Browns. Which of those teams did he buy twice?
Check tomorrow’s newsletter for the answer.
Yesterday’s SIQ: Which MLB team did original Rays owner Vince Naimoli previously try to buy and move to Tampa Bay?
Answer: The Giants. A group led by Naimoli reached an agreement with then Giants owner Bob Lurie to purchase the team and move it to the stadium then known as the Florida Suncoast Dome. But the deal was struck down by the other National League owners.
Lurie was trying to dump the Giants after failing to drum up support for a taxpayer-funded stadium to replace Candlestick Park. He eventually sold to a group led by Peter Magowan, who led the effort to build the Giants’ current stadium without public funds.
Naimoli, meanwhile, got his team three years later and had to pay only $20 million more ($130 million) than he was going to for the Giants.
From the Vault: March 9, 1981
In the spring of 1975, Lee Elder was the biggest story in golf. In April ’74, Elder won the Monsanto Open, which guaranteed him a spot in the field at the Masters the following year. He spent 51 weeks after that victory labeled as a man about to make history, because no Black golfer had competed at the Masters before.
Jerry Kirshenbaum’s cover story details the strain Elder’s sudden celebrity status had on his game in the months leading up to the Masters. He wrote that Elder “has been playing some of the worst golf of his career” and hadn’t finished better than 36th in a tournament yet that year.
At the Masters, Elder would finish his first two rounds at eight over par, four strokes above the cut line.
Regardless of the result, Elder was a golf pioneer, and had been before his appearance at Augusta National. He had traveled to South Africa at the invitation of Gary Player to compete in the first integrated tournament there, but agreed to participate only if the clubhouse and galleries were also integrated.
Elder made five more appearances at the Masters and finished tied for 17th in 1979. He came back to Augusta last year as the honorary starter for the tournament at age 86. He died in November at 87.
Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.
