MLB lockout news: MLB owners, players reach tentative deal to end lockout, sources say

March 9, 2022 at 10:28 PM EST

The sides this week took steps toward each other on the numbers in some issues, including the luxury tax thresholds and the minimum salaries. Gaps still remained on key issues, but the most prominent hold-up on Wednesday was not directly numbers related. It was two issues MLB had tied together: the international draft, which the owners want newly instituted, and the players do not; and the qualifying offer, which players want to eliminate and owners do not.

MLB presented three choices to players: 1. Eliminate the qualifying offer, and add the international draft; 2. Keep both the qualifying offer and international amateur systems the same as they were in the last deal, without a draft; or 3. Kick the can down the road to Nov. 15, 2022. If players don't agree to an international draft (starting in 2024) by that point, then the owners could reopen the entire collective bargaining agreement after the 2024 season. The last option, in effect, would allow for the CBA to be a three-year deal, instead of a five-year deal.

The players rejected those choices, and sent over a counter proposal: If Nov. 15 arrived and the players still didn't want an international draft, then the old systems, the qualifying offer and the current international system, would come back after the 2022-23 offseason. The two sides continued talking about the international system and qualifying offer on Wednesday night, even after MLB announced the change to Opening Day.

A key question players had to discuss Wednesday was whether the deal looked good enough for them if the qualifying offer was not eliminated — whether they were getting enough in other areas. The sides, for example, still have gaps in the pre-arbitration bonus pool, where the league has offered $40 million, and the players $65 million.

Both the qualifying offer and international draft have dollar worths to the parties, but it's unknown exactly how both sides value them and whether they value them identically. Industry sources suggested the qualifying offer to be worth between $50 million and $100 million annually. But the international draft could ultimately be worth more.

The international draft is also a major political and philosophical issue. Many Latin players are said to be opposed to it, making it a difficult element for the union to accept. It also would mean moving from a restricted market system that is in place for international amateurs now to a system where there is no market system at all. Drafts bring full cost certainty for clubs, among other benefits.

The league has also tried to position the international draft as an effort that would help clean up what commissioner Rob Manfred has termed "abuses" in international markets. Manfred has not publicly elaborated on those.

To what extent an international draft would aid in that effort, and whether the league could do more to address those abuses without a system change, are serious and debated topics in the industry.

In short, an international draft is no small matter, and neither is the qualifying offer.