Previous to December 2020, Major League organizations were not restricted whatsoever on the amount of minor league players they could have under contract. Now, Major League Baseball is seeking the ability to have the ability to again significantly reduce the amount of minor league players.

As reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN, as part of the very contentious collective bargaining negotiation, MLB has proposed “allowing the commissioner’s office to reduce the maximum number of players ‘below 150’ over the rest of the collective bargaining agreement.”

Currently, the number of minor league players stands at 180 (190 during the season) under what is known as the Domestic Reserve List. The proposal is to freeze that number for 2022 while allowing MLB to increase or reduce that amount as they see fit.

Under the proposal, teams would inform the MLBPA “of changes to the Domestic Reserve List before the first date in spring training that a team can option a player.” Players will be added to the list either with 15 days of signing a contract or playing their first game.

Passan notes MLB does not currently have plans to further restrict the Domestic Reserve List in 2023. That said, Passan further notes there were organizations with fewer than 150 last season.

Notably, this only applies to players who play minor league baseball domestically. If an organization has Dominican Summer League affiliates, it can carry 35 players per affiliate on their International Reserve List.

It should be noted while minor leaguers have filed suit against MLB over a number of issues, especially wages, there is still no formal minor league union. That leaves the MLBPA in a position to negotiate on behalf of the minor leaguers while they’re simultaneously attempting to procure the best possible deal for their Major League constituents.

As a result, the MLBPA is put into the situation where they give in on the minor league issues to get what the major leaguers want. On that note, this proposal was part of MLB’s offer restricting the amount of times a player can be shuttled between the majors and minors in one season. Currently, there are no such restrictions.

The MLBPA did not comment on this specific aspect of the proposal. However, in total, reports are the union was not particularly impressed with MLB’s entire proposal, and it didn’t appear to be any movement towards getting a deal done.