A deal remains in sight for Major League Baseball and its players. It makes no sense to shut the game down over an economic gap as small as $1.3 million per team per year, not when they are fighting over items as small as the qualifying offer compensation draft pick, which applied to only 14 players last year, and an international draft, which has never existed, mostly because of the difficulty in constructing one.
The players didn’t work this hard to win unprecedented economic gains to throw away $20.5 million a day in salary. The owners didn’t step out of their comfort zone on the Competitive Balance Tax to risk their Regional Sports Network commitments.