Along with "Leury Garcia is a tribute band," one of my long-running, probably-wrong-but-not-yet-disproven theories is that the White Sox won't be able to enjoy an actual golden age until Jerry Reinsdorf fully resists the urge to try to break a union, and this lockout poses yet another test.
Reinsdorf hasn't passed up any of the previous opportunities to swing away, including an unapologetic starring role in the 1994-95 labor stoppage that ended up derailing the most promising White Sox era in decades. This history has made it easy to assume he's a hardliner this time around, especially a report from SNY's Andy Martino circulated about a four-pack of owners who said Major League Baseball's laughable last offer to the MLBP was too generous.
But Evan Drellich was finally able to get the names of those owners, and Reinsdorf is not among them...
Four Major League Baseball owners — Bob Castellini of the Reds, Chris Ilitch of the Tigers, Ken Kendrick of the Diamondbacks and Arte Moreno of the Angels — objected to raising the competitive balance tax to the levels the league ultimately proposed most recently, three people briefed on an owner-wide call held this week told The Athletic.
... although Reinsdorf's reputation being what it is, he was the only uninvolved owner Drellich was compelled to mention by name.
One person briefed on the call noted that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, a hawk in the 1994-95 dispute, was not among those to stand in the way.
SOX MACHINE PODCAST: MLB has an ownership problem
It's still fair to harbor suspicions, especially since Reinsdorf only speaks publicly to take victory laps on things like Harold Baines' Hall of Fame induction and the White Sox's first division title in 13 years.
It's also not entirely wishful thinking that things might be different this time around. The White Sox have a top-five payroll in terms of committed money, and they've gotten to that number in a way Reinsdorf prefers. Rick Hahn was able to contain some of the salary escalation of his productive young players with numerous early-career extensions, while the free-agent spending has been targeted to the players at the tops of restrained markets. The best shortstop like Carlos Correa might cost $300 million, but the best catcher only cost $74 million because he was in his 30s, and a top closer commanded $20 million less.
And even if Reinsdorf is among a larger group of owners urging restraint from Rob Manfred, it's possible that even he's embarrassed by the cost-cutting proposed by these four owners. Drellich again:
One of the league’s efforts that irked the players was a proposal to incorporate meal money and the stipends players receive into the luxury-tax calculations. MLB, in other words, wanted to count the amount of money players receive for food against the amount of money teams can spend before they are taxed.
The luxury tax already includes some player benefit costs — it’s not just a strict accounting of player salary. But players were angry, sources said, the league would try to add something as fundamental as the cost of food as a reason to spend less on payroll.
Say what you will about Reinsdorf's track record and willingness to open his wallet, but once players are in the fold, none of them seem to complain about how they're treated.
It's not "so far, so good" because everything is still so bad, but it could be worse. He's merely cleared the lowest of bars, though, and Martino says that while these four owners felt like a penny above a $210 million luxury tax threshold was too high, he warned about a bigger cluster of owners who aren't willing to go beyond the slightest of increases.
The tone of the Zoom call, according to three sources, made it clear that even more owners would land in the “no” camp if the first CBT threshold rose above $220 million, the number they were about to propose.
While the MLBPA is mulling a response to the dead-on-arrival proposal they received in Florida, it's made a nice little PR maneuver by teaming up with the AFL-CIO to pay employees that are on the owners' payrolls.
