When Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper speaks, people listen.
One of the more vocal characters in Major League Baseball, Harper is not shy to share his opinions on potential strife that the Major League Baseball Players Association and MLB face when the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1.
“[W]e both have to understand our game is in a great position right now to succeed, and we can’t lose that momentum,” Harper told Alden Gonzalez of ESPN on Sunday. “We can’t lose that momentum as players. We can’t lose that momentum as owners. So wherever we’re at — whatever they’re coming with, whatever we’re coming with — you have to come to an agreement.”
The owners want a salary cap; players don’t.
The last time the owners tried to implement a salary cap, the players shut down the 1994 MLB season and the World Series was cancelled.
Harper said the game is in a great spot and noted that spending a ton of money, as the Los Angeles Dodgers do, isn’t the be-all, end-all to winning.
But spending and an exceptional farm system are what build a winning organization. Los Angeles had the second-best farm system in the majors before the season, per MLB.com.
“Our game is in a great direction, in a great place, because of the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Harper told Gonzalez. “Obviously they make a lot of money, they’re able to get free agents, but the Dodgers don’t just do that. They draft well. They do a very good job in the minors, developing guys.”
Harper’s quotes on the looming work stoppage are more tame than last year, when he told MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to “get the [expletive] out of our clubhouse.”
MLB, MLBPA stances are clear
Both MLB and the MLBPA have unleashed the opening salvos of their stances for the upcoming labor negotiations. In a news release, the MLBPA focused on players’ salaries, raising the minimum salary from $780K to $1.5 million and expanding pre-arbitration performance bonuses.
The MLBPA also proposed increasing benefits for smaller-market clubs that lose players to free agency.