MLB, MLBPA meeting ends after five hours

Major League Baseball and the MLBPA met again Monday to begin a critical week of negotiations as the start of the 2021 regular season hangs in the balance. Monday’s meeting took place in Jupiter, Florida at the Spring Training home of the Cardinals and Marlins. There was a large player contingent present Monday including Max Scherzer, Francisco Lindor and Paul Goldschmidt among others.

The meeting got underway around 1 p.m. Both sides eventually broke off into groups and met for over three hours. Both sides reconvened before wrapping up around 6 p.m.

It is hard to tell how much if any progress was made. The Athletic’s Evan Drellich reported that among the league’s proposals today included a $5 million increase on the pre-arbitration bonus pool to $20 million. The players are looking for something in the $100-115 million range so there is still a wide gap there. The league also proposed allowing the first four picks of the MLB Draft to be determined by a lottery system. The players were looking for eight.

Both sides are planning to meet every day this week in hopes of making some progress. Drellich also reported that there was no proposal on the Competitive Balance Tax made Monday. That is an area that there is going to have to be some movement on in order to get a deal done.

UPDATE - More details on the gap between both sides on the pre-arbitration bonus pool.

Also details on what MLB has proposed on the CBT and what the union is looking for.