The need a little help. They didn’t feel they got it.
Hence was Stu Sternberg’s lone dissenting vote as MLB owners ratified their new labor agreement by a vote of 29-1.
The Rays have long felt that the gap between large-market and small-market teams was widening, and they viewed the new labor agreement as a chance to address their concerns.
“I am thankful for the hard work, leadership, and spirit of compromise that were essential to this agreement coming together,” Sternberg told the Associated Press in an e-mail. “However, twice a decade, the bargaining process provides an opportunity to address the extraordinary and widening competitive gap that exists on-field between higher and lower revenue clubs. I feel that opportunity was missed here.”
The Rays wanted changes in the draft, for instance, that would give small market teams additional picks.
“Lower revenue clubs face a lot of obstacles, especially when it comes to talent acquisition,” baseball operations president Matt Silverman said last month. “We can’t go out and spend like other clubs so we need to find other avenues to be able to acquire that talent. We’ve looked for additional access on the amateur side, on the international side, and there haven’t been any major changes in the last 10 years, and in fact the revenue disparity between clubs has grown by an immense amount.”
