Hittin’ Season #537: Labor, PECOTA, and Banning the Shift

The clock is ticking and negotiations have finally, with a week until MLB’s soft deadline of Feb. 28 to reach an agreement without delaying the start of the 2022 regular season, begun labor discussions in earnest.

Who knows where we would be had both parties been meeting like they did on Monday, for 90 minutes of combined side sessions and direct negotiations? But no, it took months of posturing and preening to get here and, even with all the talks on Monday, there wasn’t much movement.

Pre-arbitration salary pools, Super-2 status, the competitive balances tax, draft lottery differences, and many many many MANY other proposals appear far from agreed upon, but it is encouraging the atmosphere during the discussions appear to be brighter than previous iterations, and the sides plan to meet every day this week.

On the latest episode of Hittin’ Season, Justin Klugh of Baseball Prospectus and I chatted about the latest negotiations and whether the league made a big public relations error by locking the players out two months ago.

Also, PECOTA really likes the Phillies rotation, but why? The Athletic’s Jayson Stark’s piece this week on what would happen if they banned the shift was a topic of discussion, and a new hire from the Rays (hired last November, actually), has Phils fans very excited. Maybe too excited.

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