By Samantha Ojo
Major League Baseball (“MLB”) is celebrated not only for supporting America’s national pastime, but also for its tremendous advancements in labor law, sports law, and collective bargaining. Most notably, MLB and Major League Baseball Players Association (“MLBPA”) bargained to create modern free agency in 1976.[1] Baseball’s current labor agreement, however, has a cloud looming over it in light of the issue of “service time” manipulation. MLB owners have put their own spin on free agency and may now face legal ramifications for their decisions to impede on the process.
On paper, MLB players become eligible for free agency after spending six years in the league. Instead of simply calculating six years from the date that a player is drafted, however, players must achieve six years of service time before they become eligible. Players receive Major League service time for each day they spend on the 25-man roster, known as the active roster, or the Major League disabled list.[2]
Herein lies the problem. Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”), players are credited with a full year of service for accruing 172 service days over 187 days.[3] Consequently, a player who is not on the active roster for just 16 days out of the MLB’s lengthy season will not receive a full year of service and his team will receive an extra year of contractual control.[4] This means that a player could have finished their 6th MLB season but have less than six years of service time and remain ineligible for free agency.[5] This would result in the organization retaining another year of team control on the player, and the player having to be on the active roster for another season before becoming eligible for free agency.[6]
In addition to affecting free agency, service status impacts players’ finances and their rights under the CBA. Players are guaranteed a minimum contribution to their individual retirement accounts based on service accrued.[7] Service time also determines when players are eligible for arbitration.[8] All players with at least three, but less than six, years of Major League service time become eligible for salary arbitration, a process that allows them to earn substantial raises from the league minimum salary.[9]
Further, MLB identifies the group of players that ended the prior season with between two and three years of Major League service and at least 86 days of Major League service in that season and designates the top 22 percent, in terms of service time, as arbitration eligible.[10] Those in the top 22 percent are known as “Super Two” players and are also eligible for salary arbitration.[11]
MLB teams often strategically delay calling up a player to maximize the amount of team control over the player. Teams routinely plan to wait to call up players to the majors to delay salary arbitration and the player achieving “Super Two” status.
Teams with slim postseason prospects have little incentive to call up players when they can hold out instead and receive more years of control when the player is more developed or the team is higher in the standings. Recent examples include Byron Buxton of the Twins and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays.[12]
Manipulating service time not only depresses free agent earnings, because players will be older when they become free agents, but also thwarts teams from fielding their best players.[13] The Minnesota Twins’ general manager all but confirmed that clubs use service time as a loophole in their favor, stating, “We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we weren’t at least aware of service time impacts on decisions we make.”[14]
The MLBPA recently spoke out in opposition to service time manipulation, stating,
The union’s position on service-time manipulation is clear, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and other great young talents around baseball have earned the right to play on the field for a major-league team . . . [t]he decision to not to bring [him] up is a business decision, not a baseball decision. It’s bad for the Blue Jays, it’s bad for fans, it’s bad for players and it’s bad for the industry.[15]
In terms of legal recourse, the MLBPA may want to file grievances against clubs that engage in service time manipulation. While manipulating service time is not expressly forbidden, some have proposed that the practice may violate the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing that is inherent in collective bargaining.[16]
Even if there are no legal options available, it would be in the players’ best interest for the MLBPA to bargain for a mandatory free agency age similar to the National Hockey League (“NHL”).[17] A mandatory free agency age would strip MLB clubs of the tremendous power to affect players’ earning potential in such a tangible way, and level the playing field for players who have spent significant time in the minor leagues.
The issue is expected to represent a major point of contention in the MLB and MLBPA’s next CBA negotiations, as the current CBA expires in December 2021.
[1] Roger Abrams, “Arbitrator Seitz Sets the Players Free”
https://sabr.org/research/arbitrator-seitz-sets-players-free
[2] http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/service-time
[3] 2012–2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement Between 30 Major League Clubs and the Major League Baseball Players Association 1, 96 (Dec. 12, 2011), available at http://mlb.mlb.com/pa/pdf/ cba_english.pdf [https://perma.cc/LZY2-RVTB ] [hereinafter 2012–2016 Basic Agreement].
[4] Id.
[5] See Adam Garland “Service Time and What it Means for Top Prospects” https://www.pitcherlist.com/service-time-and-what-it-means-for-top-prospects/
[6] Id.
[7] Maury Brown “Breaking Down MLB’s New 2017-21 Collective Bargaining Agreement” https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2016/11/30/breaking-down-mlbs-new-2017-21-collective-bargaining-agreement/#196b9cd611b9
[8] See http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/service-time
[9] See Adam Garland “Service Time and What it Means for Top Prospects” https://www.pitcherlist.com/service-time-and-what-it-means-for-top-prospects/
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] See Daniel Epstein, “The MLBPA needs to Stand Up for Byron Buxton” https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2018/9/4/17814014/mlbpa-byron-buxton-minnesota-twins-thad-levine-tony-clark-cba-service-time-free-agent-prospects
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Matt Snyder, “MLBPA backs Vladimir Guerrero Jr., slams Blue Jays in service time manipulation battle” https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlbpa-backs-vladimir-guerrero-jr-slams-blue-jays-in-service-time-manipulation-battle/
[16] Patrick Kessock, Out of Service: Does Service Time Manipulation Violate Major League Baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement?, 57 B.C.L. Rev. 1367 (2016).
[17] Mike Axia, “Instituting a free agency age could solve the MLBPA’s two biggest problems in the next CBA”
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/instituting-a-free-agency-age-could-solve-the-mlbpas-two-biggest-problems-in-the-next-cba/
