2026 Collective Bargaining Negotiations

[zambonir]

I don't want to underestimate the extent to which fans (and also politicians) can end up siding with owners but so far I feel like Manfred is bungling this like crazy. Seems like the strategy is either they for sure are willing to lose a year, or they are just making such big asks in order to extract quite a bit in compromise. Even the international draft is a complete non-starter to me as things currently stand, making that system more fair and less ethically shady is only a good goal if they aren't ripping off labor a dozen other ways.

Can anyone here who is not a minor league/draft junkie name a single college baseball player? I can only name one pitcher for Texas and I didn't even get to watch their CWS elimination game and only learned the result by Googling it, even ESPN doesn't feature the bracket games at that top of the home page.

I'm sure NIL in the ACC and Big 12 and Big 10 is not awful (the gap with the SEC is the same in all sports) but it is for sure not comparable to first or even second-round draft bonsus. I'm not sure there's even a baseball player who got more than Nija Canady in softball (though a Bryce Harper certainly would).

[mdougherty12]

Can anyone here who is not a minor league/draft junkie name a single college baseball player?

I don't even remember Ben Davis's kid's name, and they mention him all the time on the TV broadcasts.

[zambonir]

To be fair, his name is not a real word. But yeah, how did Louisville do, even? Of course, pretty much all white American baseball players are well-off (and many of the Black ones seem to be mostly the children of previous major leaguers).

They could just as easily finish their development at Driveline or an AIG league.

[bkox]

Feels more and more like banana ball is gonna be the big ticket next year . Do the minor leagues still play if the MLB is on strike? And if so who is eligible to play? Only people not on the 40 man? or players with no MLB experience?

[zambonir]

The MILB CBA is good until the 2027 but right, nobody on a 40-man could play.

[bigegypt0417]

Banana Ball is already a big ticket!

they came to Milwaukee and sold out AmFam Field two nights in a row.

it was fantastic!

[zambonir]

They're a big ticket the same way a concert is, they don't have to sell out 81 nights in one city. And their expansion has been more for minor league markets. I believe they didn't even come to Philly this year (after being at CBP each of the last two) but are back in the Lehigh Valley soon.

It will be interesting to see if they try to do more next year, but also, will MLB stadiums book them? No skin off team ownership's noses, I guess. But would former MLB players who are now part of it participate if so? They wouldn't be crossing a picket line or playing real baseball but they would be helping the people that have locked their former teammates and union colleagues out.

[BostonRoss]

I’m pretty sure the minors continued to play when the 1994 MLB season ended prematurely (though there were only a few weeks left). The minors definitely continued during the 1981 strike. The famous 33 inning game that was suspended in April was completed during the strike.

[bkox]

yeah but all that was before the minor league players joined with the MLBPA and got their own collective bargaining agreement so I wasnt sure