MLB lockout threatens spring training

The 1994 strike that took down baseball’s crown jewel — and has served as a cautionary tale ever since — was the result of mounting tensions and well-earned mistrust between the players and MLB team owners. But at its most simple, it was about a salary cap — the team owners tried to implement one, and the players struck in response.

The current lockout, which is about a week away from likely disrupting baseball’s spring calendar, remains ongoing for many reasons. But even if the rest of them were resolved, there would still be a significant battle left to wage over the league’s attempt to curtail spending at the upper end of the sport.

It’s not quite a cap. But these negotiations are shaping up to include a contentious and potentially protracted fight over whether baseball moves toward or away from one. And the two sides haven’t talked about it since before the lockout started, even as an on-time start to spring training looks increasingly far-fetched.

When a new collective bargaining agreement was eventually reached two years after the ‘94 strike, there was no cap, but there was a luxury tax on the top payrolls as a compromise. In subsequent CBAs, that’s become what’s known as the competitive balance tax — which sets a payroll threshold above which teams are taxed at escalating rates. The threshold itself and the penalties for surpassing it are a wonky but significant part of every negotiation with demonstrable effect on team behavior, functioning as a so-called “soft cap.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/a-fight-over-this-issue-looms-large-as-mlb-lockout-threatens-spring-training-223612707.html