What a deal would look like if the owners and players met in the middle

One of the MLBPA’s demands has been to expand eligibility for salary arbitration. The union began these talks asking for the threshold to be lowered to two years for all players. It dropped the demand to 80% in a previous offer and decreased it again this week to 75%.

The middle point here is 48.5%.

This would move 49 additional players into their arbitration years this offseason. According to an analysis of MLB Trade Rumors’s arbitration database, the average Super Two player since 2018 has earned $2.12 million in their first year of salary arbitration. Those 49 players would cost owners at least $76 million if you subtract the current base wage from the Super Two average.

There’s also a compounding effect of Super Two players having four years of arbitration eligibility instead of three. Super Two players who advance through arbitration generally earn more than the average arbitration comparable salary - in part because they’re often better players and because they have the additional year outside the minimum-wage levels.