United during negotiations, MLB players divided on deal

NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball players maintained unity throughout labor negotiations, yet were divided when it came time to vote on the deal.

The eight-man executive subcommittee that appeared to be most involved in the nearly year-long talks voted 8-0 Thursday against approving the five-year contract. Team player representatives, the overall group supervising negotiations, voted 26-4 in favor, leaving the overall ballot at 26-12 for ratification.

“You call it a division, I call it a healthy dialogue and conversation,” union head Tony Clark said Friday. “From our standpoint, the process worked. Each group and each team, each player, have had an opportunity to engage their team and and voice their particular vote against the backdrop of the other 25 members or 39 members, I guess I should say, of their club.”

MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem and Clark signed a 182-page memorandum of understanding on Thursday incorporating 26 tentative agreements requiring revisions to the Basic Agreement and Major League Rules.

Training camps are opening ahead of a season that will start a week late on April 7 but still preserving a 162-game schedule.

Players on the exco, as it is referred to, are veterans for the most part at the top of the salary scale: Mets pitcher Max Scherzer ($43.3 million this season), Yankees pitchers Gerrit Cole ($36 million) and Zack Britton ($14 million), Texas infielder Marcus Semien ($25 million), Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor ($32 million), Houston catcher Jason Castro ($3.5 million) and free agent pitcher Andrew Miller ($12 million last year).

Britton, Cole, Paxton, Scherzer and Semien are represented by agent Scott Boras, the sport's most influential agent.

Among the 1,670 players who appeared on a major league roster this year, 1,145 earned under $1...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/United-during-negotiations-MLB-players-divided-16996040.php