Alex Wood, Giants pitcher, in on Feb. 23 tweet: “It’s fascinating MLB setting a hard deadline to play a full season for Monday. They locked us out. Had barely any contact for two months post lockout. Have yet to make a single good faith offer to even initiate real conversations to get a deal done Just make a real offer.”
Mitch Garver, Twins catcher, in a Feb. 16 tweet: “Why is the general public coming after players on social media about the CBA and especially MiLB? Conditions in the minors have always been bad and we are trying to change that. It was bad for my class and worse for the classes before me”
Wood in a Feb. 12 tweet: “If penalties increase under the CBT/Luxury tax IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THE THRESHOLD IS MY GOD. Make the threshold a billion dollars it doesn’t matter. Teams already don’t spend bc they use the current penalties as an excuse not to. Imagine if the penalties got worse. SMH.”
Wood in a Feb. 10 tweet: “To be clear. Manfred/MLB want stricter penalties under the Collective Bargaining Tax(CBT). All the CBT does is suppress spending & encourage TANKING. Aren’t fans tired of this? Don’t you want to see ALL teams actually trying to win each year? CBT should be abolished not enhanced.”
Aaron Judge, Yankees slugger, despues de to Feb. 10 MLBPA meeting: “Great meeting, great unity… A lot more guys showed up than I expected which is great. Turned out great and just looking forward to getting this thing done.”
Gerrit Cole, Yankees pitcher, in on Feb. 9 tweet: “I was at our PA meeting in AZ and it was exciting to see solidarity this high. We had 100+ players show up and are united to protect the integrity of the game.”
Whit Merrifield, Royals second baseman, in a Feb. 8 episode of The Athletic BaseballShow: “We’ve been frustrated for a long time over getting to the table and hashing a deal out. I mean, after we were locked out, we went six weeks without talking to the league. And that just can’t happen. It shouldn’t happen.
And then, as recently as last week, we had a meeting with them. And we proposed our proposal. We went back and forth on some topics. And we ended the meeting by saying we’ll get back to you — and actually, they kind of snarkily said — “in two days.” (After MLB’s last proposal), it took us about a week to get back to them. So they said it would be two days, “unlike the week it took you guys to get back to us.”
“And so we’re waiting a couple of days. And then they came out with this idea of a mediator, which in our league history has not been very productive. So we felt instead of bringing in an outside mediator that would actually delay the process for probably an extra three weeks, we wanted to get back to the table and talk, and have them come back to us with a proposal, like they had told us they would.
And instead they were just trying to delay that process even longer. And we have no interest in that. We’re interested in getting to the table and getting a deal done.”
Mitch Garver, Twins catcher, in a Feb. 8 tweet: “What a great day to meet #AtTheTable. @MLB and the owners are in shambles yet the @MLBPA has been ready to negotiate through this thing for months.”
Max Scherzer, Mets pitcher, in a pair of Feb. 4 tweet: “We don’t need mediation because what we are offering to MLB is fair for both sides: We want a system where threshold and penalties don’t function as caps, allows younger players to realize more of their market value, makes service time manipulation a thing of the past, and eliminate tanking as a winning strategy.”
Alex Wood. Giants pitcher, in a Feb. 4 tweet: “It would probably take 2 weeks just for an “impartial” mediator to get caught up enough to proceed. They’d then use an already broken system/CBA as guideline toward a new deal. Makes zero sense for anybody. Players are ready to make a fair/mutually beneficial deal! #AtTheTable”
James Paxton, Mariners pitcher, in on Feb. 4 tweet: “A significant part of Collective Bargaining is…actually bargaining #AtTheTable”
Jameson Taillon, Yankees pitcher, in on Feb. 4 tweet: “If the goal is to get players on the field asap- then why did it take 43 days after the lockout to even hear from MLB? Didn’t seem like a priority then! Why did we not get a counterproposal this week? It’s all extremely tired antics/optics.”
Max Scherzer, Mets pitcher, in a Feb. 3 interview with The Athletic: “The business will take care of itself. Right now, seeing how the business of the game has transpired, us as players, we recognize what we’re trying to do here to make the game itself better. Whatever happens, happens. But we’re ready to go whenever we do come to an agreement.”
Garver in a trio of Feb 3 tweet: “I think it’s no secret the state of baseball is at a crossroads. One side has done all it can do to negotiate through the lockout, and the other side has refused to do the same. We the players have negotiated in good faith the same way we did in 2020 during the shortened season.
“The ploy used by the league to hire a federal mediator to work through the lockout is a tactic to show they are bargaining in good faith. We the players want to get to the bargaining table ASAP to get ready for the 2022 season.
“The only thing holding us back is the league dragging their heels on negotiations that will lead to lost games in 2022. I feel bad for the fans mostly because I know all players want to be at ST in a few weeks, so when we’ re ready to figure it out the players will be ready.”
Wood in a Feb. 3 tweet: “How can MLB request for there to be a mediator from the federal government to help with negotiations when they literally haven’t even done any negotiating up to this point? Asking for a friend.”
Lucas Giolito, White Sox pitcher, in a late January interview with The Athletic: “It’s become relatively clear that the other side is content with the way it is, where as we are really just trying to improve the product as a whole,” Giolito said. “A big part of that is promoting a more competitive landscape. We want it so that — I feel bad, but at the same time, it is what it is — Pittsburgh Pirates fans, Baltimore Orioles fans can get excited about their team on a year-to-year basis. They want to buy tickets and go and watch the best possible product on the field. Unfortunately, in some cases, that’s just not how it is right now. And that’s a huge, huge part of what we’re trying to improve.”