The off-season activity with MLB teams has been slow, very slow. Dodgers fans are anxious to learn if Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen will continue in Dodger Blue or will slip through the front office fingers – or pocket book – and perchance feed our greatest nightmare and wind up in black and orange. The Dodger faithful are waiting for a big signing or a team changing trade even at the cost of forfeiting blue chip prospects.

One wonders why the transaction wire has been so quiet. Perhaps it is because the free agent market is experiencing a bit of a down year with few big-name players or players most coveted in certain positions. Perhaps it is because free agents are waiting for others to make the first move so as to set the free agent signing bar as high as possible.

The 2016 Baseball Winter Meetings will take place in National Harbor, Maryland, December 4-8, at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Perhaps everyone is waiting for the winter meetings so general managers, agents and others can deal in a face-to-face situation.

However, the upcoming winter meetings may be facing a significant challenge and that challenge may in fact be in whole or in part responsible for the lack of action on the trade and free agent market since the completion of the World Series.

That challenge is the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which expires on December 1, 2016. The present agreement became effective on December 12, 2011 and is about to lapse in less than a week. The CBA is exclusively between the 30 Major League Clubs and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred
(Photo credit – Denny Medley)

Article 1 of the Agreement in two sentences specifies the intent and purpose of the Major League Baseball Clubs and the Players’ Association. Skipping around any legalize the Agreement in great detail lays out the terms and conditions of employment of all Major League Baseball Players for the duration of the Agreement. Those terms and conditions in the 295-page document include all money matters, scheduling, grievance procedures, discipline, player health and safety concerns and so much more.

For most players one expects the area of greatest concern in the CBA deals with money matters. Simply put the players want a greater piece of the financial pie. Their share of baseball revenue has dropped from 56 percent in 2001 to 38 percent in 2014, as salaries have not increased at nearly the same rate as television revenues. Therein may lie one of the reasons for the slow pace of free agent signings thus far since free agents went on the market following the World Series. The players are perhaps waiting to see what the new CBA will contain for them and owners are naturally waiting to see what it will mean for them.

Although there has not been much information regarding the CBA discussions leaking out, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported last Tuesday that the owners will consider voting to lock out the players if a new CBA is not agreed upon by December 1. If a lockout occurs, no free agent signings or trades would occur until a new CBA can be implemented.

The two front-and-center players in the negotiations are both taking their first kick at the can in their respective positions. Former major league first baseman Tony Clark is in charge of his first CBA as head of the players’ union. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has led negotiations from the owners’ side before, but this is his first CBA negotiation as commissioner and one can expect he wants anything but a lockout.

The two sides have not negotiated through the media but some sticking points have made their way into the public eye.

Three issues in particular seemed to have slowed the talks to a snail’s pace closing in on a last-minute agreement. The creation of an international draft is a stumbling block while eliminating draft-pick compensation for free agent signings may well be reworked to the benefit of both sides. A third issue may also be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. That is, a change to the luxury tax/revenue sharing formula.

The greatest impediment to the signing of a new CBA is the proposal of an international draft. The proposed draft would begin in March of 2018 and include 10-rounds that would be held over two days. The new proposition would have players being eligible to be drafted at the age of 18 by the year 2021.

Top players in the Dominican Republic have already spoken out against the proposed draft and are prepared to be more demonstrative in their opposition to the proposal. MLB’s annual Dominican Republic National Showcase was scheduled to take place Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 26-27). However, the league was forced to announce that it would be canceling the event due to protests from independent trainers and players.

“Due to the lack of cooperation from the independent trainers, the Dominican Republic National Showcase has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience,” the league told its teams, according to Baseball America’s Ben Badler.

Although not an area of contention, both Rob Manfred and Tony Clark have talked about the possibility of returning to a 154-game schedule. It most likely won’t happen simply because the pull of the dollar on baseball decisions trumps player health concerns.

MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark
(Photo credit – Mark Cunningham)

Tony Clark spoke from personal experience: “In looking back from the time I played, to now that I’m watching what these guys are doing, I don’t know how they do it,” Clark told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “What these guys are being asked to do with respect to games’ start times, with respect to the travel distances themselves, with respect to performing at an elite level with three days off a month, is a challenge.”

Expanding the active roster by one player to 26 is also on the docket and could help somewhat with the concerns expressed by Clark.

The clock is ticking and everyone with a vested interest is watching. Will the new CBA be signed by the winter meetings beginning on December 4?