The 2026 season has been a treat thus far, but it’s going to important for fans to enjoy this season while it lasts. Once the season ends, negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement will continue, and with both sides so far apart on several issues, a long lockout is expected to take place.
Owners proposed sweeping changes to the free agency system in addition to the proposed salary cap last week, which was met with distaste from the Players’ Association. And so, on Wednesday, with the two sides far apart on salary issues, the Players’ Association proposed some changes regarding roster construction, service time and salary protections, as well as other issues. Bob Nightengale of USA Today posted a screenshot of the main sticking points on X.
MLBPA Proposal Highlights Six Major Changes
The first change proposed by the MLBPA was for active rosters to be expanded from 26 players to 28 players for the first 15 days of the regular season, “designed to protect player health in the lead up to and just after Opening Day, and provide additional major league job opportunities for players coming out of spring training.
Next was a change to how teams use the injured list, which would allow teams to place players on the 60-day IL as early as November. This is designed to create more opportunities on the 40-man roster for players and for clubs to have more flexibility with it in hopes of being able to replace players who have long recovery timelines
The Players proposed a reduction to the number of optional assignments per player from five to three, hoping to “combat roster churn and promote full-time jobs at the MLB level throughout the year.”
The final three points include accelerating eligibility for the Rule 5 Draft to give minor league prospects opportunities to get to the major leagues quicker, provide service time and salary protections to players who are optioned immediately after games and increase access to performance data.
How Will Owners React?
Owners have proposed changes to the draft, as well as banning high school signings, which also was met with distaste from the players. It remains to be seen how owners will react to the ideas of players being able to reach the major leagues sooner. Owners often manipulate service time to keep players around the organization one year longer, so the possibility of those changes might not sit well with the owners.
Roster expansion might be a little bit less sticky. This was something both sides had agreed upon for the 2020 and 2021 seasons during the pandemic, so the idea of briefly expanding rosters may not be met with quite as much resistance.
Still, it will be interesting to see what the owners counter with, if anything. Both sides are very far apart on a lot of issues, so this may not do much in the way of preventing a lockout and a long year of proposals being exchanged. A lot is at stake this coming winter, so it should be interesting to see where things end up.
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