Selig Wants Players to Accept a Luxury Tax

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig asked players Wednesday to accept a luxury tax that would slow the increase of salaries and proposed that teams vastly increase the amount of local revenue they share.

Selig spoke for nearly four hours during a bargaining session at major league baseball’s headquarters in New York and explained management’s central economic proposals for a labor contract to replace the agreement that expired Nov. 7.

Addressing eight players and lawyers from union and management, Selig asked for a 50% luxury tax on the amounts of payrolls above $98 million, according to three people familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition they not be identified.

Selig also proposed that teams put 50% of their locally generated revenue, after deductions for ballpark expenses, in a pool that is redistributed equally to all teams, up from 20% this year.

The New York Yankees, who generated the most revenue among the 30 major league teams last year at $242 million, would pay an additional $36 million to the other teams next year under the plan Selig outlined.

One management projection estimated the tax would affect four or five teams next season.

In addition, Selig told players that owners would like a worldwide draft, which would eliminate the ability of Cuban defectors to become free agents and gain the leverage that has gotten many multimillion contracts.

Both sides were guarded in their comments.

“Bud outlined his basic position, as did we,” union head Donald Fehr said. “There have been a lot of preliminary discussions. Neither party was surprised. It was a workmanlike initial meeting. I really don’t want to characterize the substance of the discussions.”

Rob Manfred, management’s top labor lawyer, called it “a full constructive day.”

Players are happy with the current system of free agency and salary arbitration, which has existed with little change since 1976, boosting the average salary from $51,500 to $2.14 million in a quarter century, a period in which baseball’s revenue increased from $182 million to $3.55 billion.

Under the labor agreement that covered 1996 to 2001, the union agreed to a luxury tax for the 1997, 1998 and 1999 season, but owners regarded it as largely ineffectual.

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Seven members of the Dodgers’ 40-man roster showed up for the club’s first winter workout--starting pitcher Eric Gagne, relief pitcher Matt Herges, catchers Paul Lo Duca and Chad Kreuter, right fielder Shawn Green and utility players Dave Hansen and Dave Roberts.

General Manager Dan Evans would not elaborate on any potential trade of Gary Sheffield or the possibility of the outfielder still being a Dodger when the team meets in Vero Beach, Fla., next month.

“We’ll get through it,” Evans said, “and I’m confident that when it’s all said and done, we’ll be a good ball club again.”

Paul Gutierrez

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Reliever Billy Wagner agreed to a $27-million, three-year contract with the Houston Astros.... The St. Louis Cardinals turned to Japan to fill a vacancy in the outfield, agreeing to a three-year contract with So Taguchi worth about $3 million.... Reliever Mark Wohlers signed a two-year, $4-million contract with the Cleveland Indians.... Infielder Craig Counsell re-signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks for three years at $7.25 million.

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Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez has been throwing without pain for three weeks and is expected to be ready for spring training, Manager Joe Kerrigan said.

Although Kerrigan, who was promoted from pitching coach when Jimy Williams was fired in August, has not spoken to Martinez since the end of the season, the Red Sox ace has been in touch with the team’s trainer and strength coach.

Martinez was 7-1 with a 1.44 earned-run average on Memorial Day, but he went on the disabled list with inflammation in his rotator cuff. He returned to make two starts in August, but he clearly wasn’t the same pitcher who had won three Cy Young Awards.

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Three former umpires who lost their jobs as part of a failed mass resignation in 1999 are each suing major league baseball for at least $350,000.

Ken Kaiser, Dale Ford and Mark Johnson sued Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.

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Paul O’Neill will become an analyst for the New York Yankees’ new YES Network this season, the first since his retirement as a player.

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The Padres filed a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court accusing Bruce Henderson of malicious prosecution, saying Henderson filed “baseless” lawsuits to stall stadium construction.