MLB Notes: Management doesn’t want court fight

Friday, Aug. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

If given a choice, baseball owners say they'd rather have a labor agreement than a court fight.

"My preference is to make a deal," management negotiator Randy Levine said Thursday. But if we don't, making the last and final offer and going to court certainly is an option I will have to consider."

Levine obtained the authority to make a final offer when owners met earlier this week, but he said Thursday he doesn't know when or if he'll present it to the players.

Union head Donald Fehr, who on Wednesday questioned whether owners are interested in an agreement, clearly prefers to continue negotiations.

"I hope Randy means it," Fehr said.

Owners have been frustrated by the slow pace of the talks and are fearful that continuing them indefinitely would allow another off-season under the current economic system.

"We've had more than 70 bargaining sessions," Levine said. "There is no reason this thing can't be over, but it takes two sides to reach an agreement."

Levine also has authority from the owners to go back to court and ask U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor to lift her injunction, which keeps in force the rules of the labor agreement that expired in December 1993. The injunction, issued on March 31, 1995, caused players to end their strike after 232 days.

"The lifting of the injunction would be in full hope of trying to reach an agreement," Levine said. "You can't negotiate with yourself when one party tries to use a court injunction as a sword rather than a shield."

According to many sources, the differences between the sides have narrowed in recent weeks.

Fehr said there has been a "slow and steady narrowing of the differences" and said progress had been made "even through last week."

"It's my impression that a deal is possible in spite of all the rhetoric to the contrary," agent Tom Reich said Thursday. "And if a deal isn't made, the sport isn't worth talking about, anyway, as we've historically known it."

One source, speaking on the condition he not be identified, described the following areas of disagreement, all far narrower than the positions taken during the strike:

* While the sides agree there would be a luxury tax in 1997, 1998 and 1999, and there wouldn't be a tax in 2000, the union wants the contract to extend through 2001 with no tax in the final two years. Owners are willing to give the extra tax-free year if the union gives them something in return.

* Owners want the threshold for a luxury tax to begin at $49.8 million in 1997, while the union has proposed $53.3 million. Owners are prepared to raise the threshold by 7 percent in 1998 and another 7 percent in 1999. The sides agree that no more than five or six teams each year would pay a tax.

* Owners have proposed a tax rate of 35 percent while the union has proposed 34 percent.

* On the minimum salary, the union has proposed a rise from $109,000 to $165,000 for this year (with it retroactive for only the last one-third of the season), $175,000 for 1997 and 1998, and $200,000 for 1999 and 2000. Owners proposed no rise this year, $150,000 in 1997, $160,000 in 1998, $165,000 in 1999 and $175,000 in 2000.

* On revenue sharing, the sides agree on all but two aspects. Owners want it to be at 85 percent of its full level in 1999, while the union wants it to be at 80 percent. Players also object to luxury-tax money being used to make up the shortfall in revenue-sharing money that would be given to small-market teams in 1997.

* On salary arbitration, owners want to eliminate the rule on the maximum percentage an arbitrator can cut a player's salary, currently 20 percent in most cases. Owners have proposed three-man arbitration panels instead of a single arbitrator; the union said it would agree to using three-man panels for either half of the agreement or half of the cases each year.

* BURKETT JOINS RANGERS: John Burkett can thank the Florida Marlins for the chance to pitch for a playoff contender. They traded him to the Texas Rangers. Burkett joined the AL West leaders Thursday for minor league right-hander Ryan Dempster and a player to be named. Burkett, 31, who was 6-10 with a 4.32 ERA in 24 starts for the Marlins this season, said he expects to start for the Rangers on Saturday or Sunday in Toronto. Texas had a two-game lead over Seattle before Thursday's games. Though the trade deadline was July 31, Burkett passed through waivers to become eligible to be dealt. With the trade and several other moves, the Marlins in effect gave up on their disappointing season and began to lay the groundwork for 1997.