MLB players union proposes earlier trade deadline and more limits on player demotions

MLB players union proposes earlier trade deadline and more limits on player demotions

Under the union's proposal, teams would be able to add extra players to their rosters early in the season, and couldn't shuttle them up and down as easily. Steph Chambers / Getty Images

For as tense as the fight over a salary cap has been and will continue to be, Major League Baseball’s players and owners have much to discuss besides the industry’s core economics. Their collective bargaining process rolled forward Wednesday with proposals in other areas that could directly affect the way teams build their rosters.

The Major League Baseball Players Association’s proposal focused on revising transactions, particularly those governing how teams can shuttle players between the majors and minors, and what happens to player pay and service time when they are sent down.

The players asked for the trade deadline to be moved up a bit, to a window between July 21-27. Currently, the commissioner’s office chooses a date annually between July 28 and Aug. 3. This year’s is Aug. 3.

The MLBPA also wants to allow limited trading opportunities after that deadline. The union asked to allow “outrighted” players — players whom teams have removed from their 40-man rosters to send to the minors — to be tradeable once the deadline has passed.

The union wants to expand big-league roster sizes to 28 from the present 26 for the first 15 days of every regular season, reducing the workload for players when many are still ramping up for the long haul. That change would also get more players big-league money for a couple weeks, something owners would typically oppose.

Other parts of the proposal, which was reviewed by The Athletic, were aimed at reducing roster churn — the rate at which teams go through players. Owners will also be hesitant to reduce those freedoms.

Most players have three seasons in their careers in which they can be moved freely between the majors and minor leagues without having to pass through waivers, where other teams have a chance to claim them. When a player is in such a season — on “optional assignment,” as it’s called — teams can demote that player to the minors up to five times. The union wants to reduce the limit to three times.

The union also wants protections for pitchers who are demoted not necessarily because they’re pitching poorly, but because the team just heavily used them, or because the midseason All-Star break means they don’t need them for a time.

Why does this matter? Players typically make less money in the minors than they do in the majors, and their time in the minor leagues usually does not count toward the requirements needed to reach larger paydays in free agency or salary arbitration.

Pitchers who record at least nine outs or throw at least 50 pitches in a game that occurs within seven days immediately prior to the All-Star break would receive service time and their major-league salary up to the club’s fourth game after the break, regardless of whether the pitcher has been called back up to the majors. Teams also would be forbidden from citing the demotion in any salary arbitration hearing.

Similarly, a pitcher who records nine outs or throws at least 50 pitches who is optioned that same day or the following day would get big-league service and salary for four days following the appearance.

The PA also wants any players optioned in September or October to newly receive big-league pay, not just big-league service as they do today (and to again exclude the demotion from arbitration arguments). The standard minor-league season ends in early September, so the players would normally be sent down to stay ready for, say, a postseason run.

The union in a news release called these provisions an effort “to reduce roster manipulation and protect players (often middle relievers and spot-starters) who are optioned but expected to ‘stay hot.’”

MLB declined comment.

Among other changes the union proposed:

• A separate, dedicated inactive roster status for players on religious observance, called the “religious accommodation list.” Players would have to apply to the commissioner’s office for eligibility, and the maximum stay on the list would be two days. Players would be paid and receive service time while on the list.

• Full playoff eligibility for players anywhere inside a team’s organization by 12. p.m. ET on Sept. 1. The current rules require players to be on the 40-man roster (although others are eligible as an injury replacement).

• A move of this year’s major-league Rule 5 draft to Nov. 24 from December, and to move all future Rule 5 drafts held in the final year of a collective bargaining agreement to November. The idea here is to guarantee that the Rule 5 draft takes place regardless of any labor disputes. The Rule 5 draft is typically held in December. When the owners locked out the players at the start of December in 2021 — the last time the CBA expired — no major-league Rule 5 draft was held during the lockout, and there might not be one in the 2026-27 offseason either.

• A change to the emergency-catcher provision, which designates a bullpen catcher as a replacement if a team’s two active catchers are both injured inside a given game. The union proposes that the emergency catcher would get pay and service for the day they are used. (An emergency catcher provision was introduced in 2020 as part of COVID-19 protocols and that version is still on the books.)

• Allowing teams to use the 60-day injured list in the offseason, starting in November (technically, the day after the annual “tender” deadline). The union hopes this would allow teams to sign more players. Today, the 60-day IL disappears at the end of every season and is not available again until pitchers and catchers report. When a player is moved to the 60-day IL, it frees up a spot on the active 40-man roster. Therefore, if teams could move players to the 60-day IL in the winter — in an instance where someone will be unavailable for a long time — it could facilitate some earlier signings.

• Allowing veteran free agents who sign with a team near or after Opening Day to have the opportunity to go to the minors, but briefly, so long as the player and the team want such a clause to be included in their contract. There have been instances of this in the past, but the union is proposing to codify it. It would look like this: some free agents who are out of options would newly be allowed to sign a major-league deal that grants a one-time optional assignment, as long as they are signing a contract no earlier than 10 days before the season. But their stay in the minors is only supposed to last for 10 days, or up to an additional nine days if the player consents.

• Players to have access to all club-collected, non-proprietary performance data. If a team uses a high-speed camera to capture a player’s pitching motion, for example, this would require it be made available to the player.

• The trade deadline would come two full business days apart from the amateur-draft signing deadline.

The league, meanwhile, made proposals Wednesday regarding the joint drug agreement, which governs the league’s testing program for performance enhancers. The league wants to ban additional substances from the sport, and to increase the ability to communicate with teams when a player has a pending positive test.

MLB also made proposals regarding on-field discipline and uniform and glove regulations.

The sides are not expected to have another meeting prior to the All-Star break in mid-July. The current labor deal is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1. The owners are likely to lock out the players if no agreement on a new contract has been reached by then — and it’s highly unlikely they’ll have made significant progress by that time.

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