Law Commons^™

Level The Playing Field: Advocating For The Removal Of Major League Baseball’S Prohibition On The Admissibility Of Statcast-Generated Sabermetrics As Evidence In Salary Arbitration Hearings, Christian Podest

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This paper argues that Major League Baseball should amend its Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to remove the outright ban on certain types of statistical evidence to help prove a player’s value. First, the paper briefly describes the history of the compensation system in the MLB and its evolution. Then, it details how final offer arbitration became the default mechanism for resolving compensation disputes between teams and players. The paper subsequently focuses on the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s carve-out of statistical evidence and notes the similarities and differences between Major League Baseball’s evidentiary standards governing salary arbitration hearings and the Federal Rules …