Outside The Confines: Talk is cheap

Good morning.

• We’ve been complaining for over a month that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association weren’t even talking, but now MLB has put a new proposal on the table and it didn’t really help. The players characterized their reaction to MLB’s proposal as “disappointed.” MLB keeps making offers that they claim will benefit the players but that the MLBPA believes actually benefits ownership or does nothing. Replacing arbitration with a statistical formula is one idea that MLB won’t give up, even if they were willing to limit it in this proposal.
• Bob Nightengale offers another take on the subject.
• Hannah Keyser writes that it doesn’t look like the lockout will end anytime soon after this proposal.
• Evan Drellich offers his report with an emphasis on what MLB did not talk about. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Chelsea Janes writes that how the MLBPA responds to MLB’s proposal will determine the future of the talks. Janes believes that the two sides have about two weeks to come to an agreement before Spring Training is delayed.
• NBC Sports Chicago was roundly criticized for characterizing the talks as “MLB proposes return to work, MLBPA balks.”
• In other union-related news, Evan Drellich reports that the MLBPA has threatened to strip certification from the agents who work for agencies connected to Endeavor, (The Athletic sub. req.) which recently bought several minor league teams. The MLBPA sees it as a conflict of interest that a talent agency is owned by the same entity that owns minor league teams and is insisting that the connection be severed.
• The two sides aren’t even talking about rules changes, but the independent Atlantic League put an end to two of them by returning the mound to 60 feet, 6 inches and eliminating the automatic ball-strike system. Moving the mound back to 61½ feet did not seem to make much difference in putting balls in play and the “robot-umps” did not work as well as advertised.
• The Yankees hiring of their new Low-A manager is getting a lot more attention than those moves normally do, and their new manager Rachel Balkovec met with the media. For her part, Balkovec said that getting the job was a sign of “The American Dream.” She also outlined how she intends to manage the team.
• Pete Caldera looks at Balkovec’s baseball and coaching career. Honestly, she’s much more qualified than most first-time Low-A managers and she really had to be.
• Lindsey Adler speaks with the Yankees front office and they told her that Balkovec really earned this opportunity. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Molly Burkhardt writes that Balkovec is a trailblazer for other women looking for jobs in baseball. Or that she may be the first, but she won’t be the last.
• As you may have heard, Jon Lester retired. And people are talking about whether or not he belongs in Cooperstown. MLB.com has a roundtable discussion of whether or not Lester should be in the Hall of Fame.
• Matt Snyder believes Lester’s postseason heroics give him a chance to get in.
• Jesse Rogers has an appreciation of Lester’s career and agrees that his postseason performance should give him serious consideration for induction.
• Outfielder Travis Snider also announced his retirement, which was puzzling to those of us who thought he’d retired years ago. But he did play for the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate last season. He hadn’t played in the majors since 2015.
• Steve Gardner looks at the controversial Cooperstown case for right-handed pitcher Curt Schilling.
• The Royals have signed former Cubs’ right-hander Arodys Vizcaíno to a minor-league deal.
• Andrew Baggarly writes about Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki and his determination to play in MLB. (The Athletic sub. req.) Suzuki said that he models his game after Mike Trout and not Shohei Ohtani, but he’s willing to try to pitch if a team wants him to. (That part about pitching was tongue-in-cheek.) Suzuki added that he was open to playing in a lot of cities, but he did want to know what city has the best nachos.
• R.J. Anderson examines what Suzuki’s metrics say about how he would do in MLB.
• Suzuki’s fellow countryman Ohtani says he’s willing and ready to be the new “face of baseball.”
• Ben Clemens writes that Brewers pitcher Brent Suter is a pitching unicorn. A very slow unicorn, but also a very good unicorn.
• Alex Pavlovic looks at the options the Giants have for completing their starting rotation.
• Fifteen-year-old Elian Soto, the younger brother of Juan Soto, has backed out of his commitment to sign with the Mets and has agreed to sign with his brother’s Nationals.
• And finally, if the owners think the players are going to agree to concessions once they start missing paychecks, they may have to think again. That’s because Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader is working as a substitute elementary physical education teacher in Missouri. OK, that’s really more of a story about a player helping out a local school and getting to know some young fans, but at least Bader is working through the lockout!

End the lockout.