MLB News: League and MLBPA Agree on 'Bonus Pool' Concept for New CBA

MLB and the players' association are both on board for a new mechanism to increase compensation for arbitration eligible players.

MLB lockout news hasn’t exactly been encouraging over the last few weeks. The league and the MLBPA still vehemently disagree on a litany of topics pertaining to the new CBA. One of those is compensation for younger players. That being said, a small kernel of hope emerged from recent the bargaining sessions this week.

The MLBPA is pushing to raise the minimum salary for pre-arbitration players. Increasing compensation for arbitration eligible players is also on their docket.

One concept, that both sides seem to agree on, in theory, is to institute a bonus pool for arbitration eligible players. The pool would award additional money to top performing players. 

MLB would like to define “top performing players” with a cut and dry method: WAR. The MLBPA has been previously been reticent to using WAR to help determine player compensation.

The Athletic’s Evan Drellich has been covering the MLB CBA since 2019. He provided some additional details on the bonus pool mechanic.

“Now, in the union’s version of this bonus pool, $105 million would be newly available to players. The league’s proposal Tuesday included less than a 10th of that, at $10 million. That gap is huge. But, the very fact that both sides are on board with the concept suggests it is likely that whenever a deal is reached, we’re going to see a bonus pool of some amount.”

Even these little wins in the CBA negotiations help keep a flicker of hope alive for baseball fans. 

MLB spring training is a little over two weeks away. Spring games come soon after. In an alarming development from this past week, MLB communicated to the players’ association that they’re willing to cancel regular season games if it comes down it.

Now, that, is the last thing the sport of baseball needs right now.