MLBPA talks Astros, collective bargaining with Mets at spring training
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — In the aftermath of one of the biggest scandals in the history of baseball, the sport is asking itself: What can it do to prevent players and teams from cheating like the Astros did?
That debate came to Mets camp Wednesday in the form of a visit from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Union bosses, including executive director Tony Clark, met with Mets players for about 90 minutes before their workout, and by the end of it all corners of the clubhouse seemed to share a sentiment: roll back some — but not too much — of the in-game technology available to players.
The 2017 Astros used a live feed of opposing catchers calling pitches to communicate to their batter at the plate was coming next. The easy fix, in the opinion of Michael Conforto, the Mets’ union representative, is to limit access to live feeds to a team’s video replay coordinator (who is responsible for telling the manager when he should challenge a call).
“The attitude became unified by the end,” Conforto said. “We don’t want to go back too far in terms of technology. We think that the line is pretty clear, the live feeds. There is no reason for them, aside from the replay guys.”
The union and MLB are negotiating how to regulate in-game access to video rooms. What, specifically, the MLBPA pitches in those talks will be determined in part by the player opinions gathered by Clark during these in-person check-ins during spring training. The Mets were the first of all 30 camps to be visited by the MLBPA this month and next as part of the union’s annual spring training routine.
Clark said the MLBPA has not ruled out discipline for players who break these rules in the future. One area of contention amid the fallout from the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing is that no players were punished for what MLB called a “player-driven” scheme.
Conforto said potential player discipline — in future cases, not the Astros’ one — was not heavily discussed during the Mets’ meeting. The conversation was more about technology.
“The attitude was to not overdo it and completely shut everything down,” Conforto said. “The bottom line is, no matter what we do, we want an even playing field. The attitudes in here — it’s clear around baseball — we didn’t feel like there was an even playing field. That was the theme of it.”
Lingering as subtext to the union meeting and the widespread anger directed toward the Astros by players across the majors: The collective bargaining agreement is due to expire following the 2021 season, and the next round of CBA talks are expected by those in the industry to be intense and difficult.
Will this obvious friction among players interfere with the union’s greater goals when it comes to CBA negotiations?
“That’s another point,” Conforto said. “We wanted to make sure these meetings are always about being unified. A big reminder that we are all part of this union. We compete against each other, but we are all in this for the future, for the future players that come after us.”
Clark said Astros-related anger would not conflict with more general player goals. He also said that “our position and our concerns haven’t changed” despite a more active offseason of free agency.
“The issues are fundamental that we think need to be addressed,” Clark said.
Those issues are in effect all things money-related: free agency, teams treating the luxury-tax threshold as a salary cap, service time/years of team control of young players.
“There is a fight coming in 2021,” Conforto said. “I have no doubt that the league will come together. Right now, it’s tough with all the things that have been going on. But I think the players union is going to be very, very strong and unified when that time comes.”
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