Around the Empire: Yankees news - 1/26/22

ESPN | Bradford Doolittle: The results of the 2022 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting were released Tuesday night, and only David Ortiz collected the required 75 percent of the vote to be inducted into Cooperstown. He received a 77.9-percent ballot share in his first year of eligibility. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens each fell off the ballot after their 10th year, coming up short of the requisite ballot share, and any possibility of future enshrinement will depend on the Veterans Committee. Alex Rodriguez received only 34.3 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility. Full Hall of Fame voting results, as well as the results of the PSA community ballot, can be viewed here.

NBC Sports | Tim Stebbins: MLB and the MLBPA met Tuesday for their second consecutive day of talks. Negotiations centered around pay for pre-arbitration eligible players. MLB proposed increasing the minimum salary from $570,500 to $615,000 for players with zero to one years of service time and the union countered with a $775,000 minimum. In addition, MLB proposed a $10 million bonus pool for pre-arb players versus the union’s offer of a $105 million bonus pool.

This is also the first time we have heard either side making concessions for the other. As noted yesterday, the union dropped their proposal that would allow certain players to reach free agency before accruing six years of service time, and MLB dropped their proposal to eliminate the arbitration process. Despite the two sides still being far apart, incremental progress is better than no progress at all.

CBS Sports | Mike Axisa: Despite the aforementioned progress in CBA talks, there is still no doubt that MLB is willing to escalate tensions in order to get as much as they can out of these negotiations. Quoting from the same Evan Drellich piece in The Athletic as was cited by Stebbins of NBC Sports, Axisa relays that Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem threatened MLBPA that the owners would be willing to lose regular season games in 2022 in order to secure certain concessions in the new CBA. Despite the existential damage this could do to the sport, it is obvious that the owners are willing to treat these talks the same way they did the delayed start to the 2020 season.

MLB.com | Manny Randhawa: In 1983, the Yankees were close to playing their home opener... in Denver. That’s right, you heard it correct, the Colorado Yankees. It was part of former owner George Steinbrenner’s failed attempt to make the Yankees a “national team” by taking the team on tour to start the season under the false pretext that renovations to Yankee Stadium would not be completed in time for Opening Day. I won’t spoil too much of the story, as it’s a fascinating read, but I’ll leave you with this last tidbit: the man who was instrumental in thwarting the plan had a stadium named after him.

New York Post | Greg Joyce: It is still widely assumed that franchise icon Freddie Freeman will re-sign with the Braves once the lockout is lifted. However, should he sign elsewhere, Atlanta will have to pivot quickly, and it’s rumored that the reigning world champs were forming their contingency plan before the CBA expired. Reportedly, the Braves and Athletics discussed a Matt Olson trade, with the talks gaining some traction. Olson is one of the trade candidates to whom the Yankees have been most strongly linked, and it will be interesting to see how they react should the Braves pip them to a move for the All-Star first baseman.

NJ Advance Media | Brendan Kuty: With all of the attention focused around the Hall of Fame, one legend who’s already been enshrined shared his take on the snubbed player he thought most deserved to be in. Cal Ripken Jr. singled out Don Mattingly as the player who the voters have shortchanged, saying that Mattingly’s numbers more than qualify for immortalization in Cooperstown. Mattingly was removed from the ballot after gaining only 9.1 percent of the vote in 2015 — his 15th and final year of eligibility — and both the Modern Era Ballot and Veterans Committee have declined to elect the Yankee first baseman to the Hall.