JCG posted:The luxury tax and compensation rules are acting as a de-facto salary cap and depressing the the free agent market.
I think players need to strike at the next cba negotiation. Mlb can't limit the veteran salaries and still keep the young player salaries low.
For years the agreement was that the union basically sells the young guys to get the veterans paid and it worked, veterans got overpaid, young players underpaid and so in the end both owners and veterans made a good business while the young guys suffered.
But now the clubs got greedy. They still pay the top veterans really well but the new smart GMs have stopped paying the middling veterans because they feel they get the same or similar production out of young guys.
It is of course smart by the GMs but the system of ripping of the young guys can't work if just the top20 percent of veterans get paid and the rest gets shitty contracts.
So clubs need to make a decision, either force the GMs to waste money on mediocre veterans with kind of a salary floor or something or pay the younger guys better (or less control years).
The clubs have the upper hand and players can't expect their share to rise but the share also can't drop even more, the players now really get ripped off.
The fans don't see that and in fact think the players get overpaid but that is only like the top 20% of the veterans and you have to consider how revenue of the league exploded.
There also is the issue of minor league salary but we shouldn't mix that up since they are not part of the union.