MLBPA opens CBA negotiations with plan to punish low-spending teams and raise luxury-tax threshold to $300M

Major League Baseball’s next labor fight officially has its opening proposal. The MLB Players Association made its first formal offer to owners Wednesday as the sport begins working toward a new collective bargaining agreement, and the union’s initial wishlist is exactly what fans might expect: higher salaries, more player protections and a new mechanism aimed at forcing lower-spending teams to put more money into the on-field product ( cough, Pirates, cough ). Among the biggest pieces of the pr