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Chat with MLBTR's Steve Adams: 3/2/22
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Steve Adams
12:45
Nah, not at all. I think they 100% should sign him. They won't, but they should. He'll be 28, 29, 30 when Rutschman, Rodriguez, Hall etc. are making an impact. They've got some interesting pieces right now in Mullins, Mountcastle, etc.
12:46
Nothing on the long-term payroll
Food Vendor
12:46
I work at Camden Yards.  My income has been hurt terribly for the past three years by Covid, a terrible on field product, and now the lockout is likely to affect my income again this year.  Yes, I've been told to "get a job".  I have a job where I have done very well, but between Covid, an abbreviated season, and now the lockout, I'm staring at another year of diminished earnings.  Doesn't anyone care about the little guy?
Steve Adams
12:48
This is such a huge element of the whole work stoppage that goes overlooked. I'm sorry for your situation. I can't imagine the difficulty -- not only in terms of finances but in terms of overall feeling so devalued. The tentacles on this whole work stoppage are so broad reaching. It's brutal, and I hope things resolve sooner than later, particularly for the sake of people like you.
Boob ManClown
12:48
Over/Under Manfred is still the commissioner in the next 5 years.
Steve Adams
12:48
Again, why wouldn't he be? He works for the owners and is very good at his job.
12:49
The players are probably going to come out of this with way less than they hoped for, and Manfred will get an extension and a raise.
Ambulance Chaser
12:50
Re: the accusations brought forward by Stripling, and assuming they are true (not necessarily a good idea,) it seems that MLB is walking a fine line risking crossing the threshold of bad faith in the negotiations.  I’m not going to break out statutory or case law on it, but it looks iffy.  Your thoughts?
Steve Adams
12:54
It's just a fascinating time to be watching these negotiations unfold, because players now not only have the means to voice things like this but also feel emboldened to do so. The 1994-95 stoppage was firmly "the players' fault" in term of public perception, and I don't believe that's the case in 2022. There's still a large number of fans who see it that way, but a lot of the players feel supported in ways they previously did not.

I won't pretend to know the legal specifics -- MLBTR's Anthony Franco (and his law degree) is probably better suited for that type of question -- but I would imagine that Stripling's words alone are not enough to prove that the league negotiated in bad faith, even though again, the optics are poor
Metsfan101
12:54
I've heard some rumours that Steve Cohens spending spree with the Mets this off-season is quietly playing a major role in these negotiations.  Something about the owners wanting to make sure the agreement punishes Cohen for blowing the market open.  Any thoughts on this? Any truth to this?
Steve Adams
12:56
It's a good example of what I said previously -- the owners may all rally behind the same cause, but they're all different people with different mindsets and some are far more set on breaking the union than others. Cohen wasn't unanimously approved by the other owners, and you can bet that some of the more hardline owners in these negotiations are pretty pissed off at his spending habits.
Wait, What?
12:57
The MLB Commissioner does a lot more than just maximize profit for the owners. "Under the direction of the MLB Commissioner, the office hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts."

I would argue that this labor stoppage has been a disaster for MLB marketing, as Commissioner he hasn't effectively negotiated a labor contract (without losing games certainly), and television revenue will suffer as a result (and I'm assuming loss of advertising is another negative downstream effect).

Props if you actually post this as many of us think Rob Manfred is a *terrible* Commissioner.
Steve Adams
12:59
I think you're muddying the waters between marketing and public relations here a bit, but MLB has had a marketing problem even before these labor issues, so the point is well taken. That said, Manfred's contract status is voted on by the owners. What owner is going to look at baseball going from $7 billion in 2016 to $10.7 billion in 2019 -- with huge TV contracts negotiated along the way -- and vote against Manfred because they think he could better market Mike Trout?
1:00
If he's making the owners money and they're seeing their franchise values appreciate, he'll keep his job and get a new contract. Maybe, depending on what the next CBA ultimately brings, a few owners will be miffed and he won't be unanimously approved, but all 30 owners agreed on a 5-year extension back in Nov. 2018
Adams Steve
1:02
Saying Manfred sucks as commissioner is like saying Boras sucks as an agent. Just not true.
Steve Adams
1:03
Tim Dierkes made a similar comment when he and I were chatting yesterday. It's not a bad comparison.
Curtis P
1:04
Re you forgot the trophy is a piece of metal….
Steve Adams
1:05
I said he puts his foot in the mouth regularly!

Lots of Manfred comments here, but I guess my bottom line thoughts are that you can hate the guy and still objectively say, "Well yeah he's good at his job" (which, again, is basically to represent the interests of the owners)
Jesse
1:05
"The players, like anyone else in the entertainment industry (movie stars, musicians, etc.) make huge salaries, sure. They also put their bodies through the grinder and are in the 99.9999999th percentile, talent-wise, at a sport we love and pay money to watch/read about. I don't mind their salaries just like I don't get mad at whatever salary the actors in my favorite TV show are collecting." Thank you for this. The refrain of "the players get paid millions of dollars to play a kids game" is something I could without hearing for the rest of my life.
Steve Adams
1:08
Yeah, the "kids' game" thing is silly. How many hours a day do kids spend practicing, and how many days a week are they playing games in front of tens of thousands of spectators while being nationally broadcast on television, etc. etc.?

I'm not trying to cue up the violin music and say we all need to pity the players. But Major League Baseball and the work that goes into it is more than a full-time job and looks nothing like my 7th-grade team.

They're the focal points in a massively lucrative entertainment industry and they, like any of the rest of us, want to be paid what they feel is their market value. The fact that their market so wildly outpaces that of you or me understandably is too much for some fans to get over, but again, I just look at the principal of it and acknowledge that, in their shoes, I'd have the same feelings. I think most of us would.
Curly W
1:09
For most of those guys, it stopped being a kids' game at about age 14
Steve Adams
1:10
WAY earlier than that for a lot of kids -- especially from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. They're getting scouted and having people negotiate agreements with them when they're like 12 years old in some cases.
CB tax
1:12
What;s a correct amount? As a fan of a mid market team, I would hate to have to compete against the Yankees and Dodgers if they can spend $260M plus. The other min. salary and increasing bonus pool s/b easy to settle. As you pointed out $30M is only $1M per team. $45 - $60M should not really impact any team.
Steve Adams
1:17
I don't know where I'd set the "correct" amount, but I think if the league had offered to jump to $230MM in 2022 we might've seen some actual negotiation, even if they kept that static for another year. I also kind of push back on the notion that there's no competing with teams like that if they spend up to $260MM.

Firstly, that's in total annual salary, and the actual year-to-yea payroll tends to differ a bit. Secondly, the union's $260MM threshold wouldn't be until 2026 (and, let's be real, they're not getting 260 that soon ... it'd have to come in well shy of that). Regardless, a payroll of that size, five years from now, is going to sound different.

A $100MM payroll used to be seen as a pretty notable benchmark, but in today's game, the majority of clubs go over that level.
1:18
Five years ago, the Padres had a $69MM payroll. They paid the luxury tax in 2021. Paying, say, $245MM in payroll will sound different in 2026 than it does now.
1:20
Beyond that, Manfred cites the luxury tax as the only means of keeping teams from running wild as if it's actually keeping payrolls balanced right now. What did Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, etc. spend last year when the luxury tax was at a "competitive" level?
Skywalker
1:20
Are teams able to negotiate with free agents during the lockout, but not able to sign them and announce agreements until a deal is struck. That would allow players to get into camps quicker when the situation is resolved.
Steve Adams
1:21
They're technically not allowed to, though I don't know that there's any great way to enforce it -- particularly when they're still negotiating with agents for minor league deals.
1:22
There's also no regulations on what agents can and can't do, so if an agent is talking to a GM about a minor league deal and then just happens to change the topic to a big league free agent in hopes the GM will listen, the agent isn't going to get in trouble. GM might cut the agent off, might silently listen to what they have to say ... who knows? I find it hard to believe all 30 baseball ops departments have just sat by and only talked about minor league free agents like they're supposed to.
Nick
1:24
I'm at an age where I only got to see the end of the George Steinbrenner days, but I don't get the hatred for owners like him & Jerry Jones in terms of wanting to do all they can to win. I assume it was/is just jealousy? I'd rather an owner that has winning so high on their list of priorities. Is that really so odd?
Steve Adams
1:25
I don't think so now, in 2022, but I won't lie and say that growing up a Twins fan in Minnesota, I didn't harbor resentment toward the big-market teams I knew would outbid the Twins on every free agent (and probably sign some homegrown stars away). I get the resentment, but I'm more in your boat now -- I think it's fun to see teams make aggressive pushes and bold moves.
That's kind of why we all follow the Hot Stove, isn't it?
mike
1:26
Can people stop bring up Millionaires vs Billionaires talks in discussion, not all players are millionaires,, think they all forget that players Agent takes good cut in their salary, mind you they get tax too
Steve Adams
1:29
I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, players (and pundits who point it out) are very correct that not all players are millionaires. Most of them aren't. This is undeniable, and I understand why players hate that narrative.

At the same time, I also kind of laugh when players on Twitter push back on fans and adamantly dispute that fact, because as others have mentioned in this chat, they're still making gobs more than the person they're talking to. Saying, "Hey I'm not a millionaire, my net last year was only like $335K, and also I expect to be on the MLB roster again this coming season and probably net like $385K after taxes, agent fees, etc." is kind of missing the point.

I think they're better off not pushing back on millionaire designation and just appealing to the principle that everyone among us wants to be valued to the full extent possible in their professions. Or to just not engage on the millionaire/billionaire thing at all, ha.
TheGreatCornholio
1:30
Two signings you see the Giants making, or at least making a big push for, once the lockout is over. I’m guessing a bat and a starting pitcher!
Steve Adams
1:31
Probably not the big splashes most of their fans are hoping for. I could see them landing Seiya Suzuki as the big one ... in the rotation, I don't know, probably a mid-range veteran who won't break the bank. Zack Greinke?
I want baseball
1:31
Am I the only one frustrated that they took over a month, before even trying to talk. Then meet only once in a while. Instead of working to get something done?
Steve Adams
1:31
Nope.
That's the most asinine part of the entire thing for me.
1:32
Hell, they've known these friction was coming for years. They could've been negotiating, in earnest, back in late 2020 or early 2021.
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