Commentary: MLB owners, players can't agree on solutions or problems

It didn’t take long for MLB owners to impose a lockout once the collective bargaining agreement expired. “This defensive lockout was necessary because the Players Association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive,” Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an open letter. This is worse: The players believe competition is a problem and believe they are offering ways to make things better, while the owners believe the players’ proposals would create a problem instead of solve one. In his open letter, Manfred said the owners had heard the union concerns and responded to them with proposals: a minimum payroll for the first time; an increased minimum salary; an NBA-style draft lottery so the team with the most losses would not necessarily pick first; free agency at a certain age rather than after a certain number of seasons so teams would not delay the start of a player’s career. When the union files a grievance over four teams that purportedly put revenue-sharing money toward profits rather than player salaries, when the luxury tax has become a de facto soft salary cap, and when the Colorado Rockies hold Jon Gray and Trevor Story rather than trade or sign them, Manfred ought to display league projections that show why less revenue sharing, a lower luxury tax and earlier free agency would make the game less competitive.