Home Safe: No‐Trade Clauses and Player Salaries in Major League Baseball

Abstract

In this study, we examine the wage effects of no‐trade clauses in Major League Baseball. Using an accepted player salary equation and data from the 2003–2008 seasons, we find evidence that there is a trade‐off between monetary compensation and the risk reduction provided by a no‐trade clause. The results suggest that players may be able to simultaneously negotiate for a no‐trade clause and higher salaries, but this is constrained when players also seek to guarantee their income stream with long‐term contracts.

The Relationship between Player Characteristics, Team Characteristics and Athletes’ Remuneration: An Advanced Empirical Study of Asian and US Professional Baseball Leagues

“…Other information were derived from statistics published in websites 4 and news publications 5 . In order to avoid possible bias from extreme values, the study also adopt those samples only include the sample data of from the 5 th percentile to the 95 th percentile as measures for the robustness test [22].…”

“…Most of them focus on salary distribution within single regions [6] [7] [9] [10] [4]. This study sets as its target of study professional baseball league in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the US between 2003 and 2014.…”

“…1 A review of literature on factors that de- termine baseball player salaries shows that include experience [1] [2], player's performance [2], age [3], contract length [4], team performance [5], sports awards [6], previous-season team revenues [7], and contract signing team located in birth state [8] as factors affecting athlete salary.…”

Sidelined: employment relations in professional sports

“…Taking these economic considerations into account the labour market for sports players can be characterised as a 'bilateral monopoly' whereby the bargaining power for lesser players resides primarily with the clubs while the highest-quality players have some, or perhaps significant, market power (Pedace & Hall, 2012). However, bargaining power is constrained by sporting systems that are themselves predicated on the need to produce 'competitive balance'.…”