In Baseball Lockout, Free Agency Window Spurs Battle Over Pay

The labor dispute threatening Major League Baseball’s season next year comes down to the same issue that’s roiled manufacturing unions in recent years: a pay structure where young workers may never make as much as those with more tenure.

The players’ union, the MLB Players Association, wants relief from a requirement that younger players serve in the major leagues for six years before they’re eligible for big-money contracts in free agency. The league maintains that doing away with that waiting period would make it impossible for teams to afford their rosters—one of the core areas of disagreement as the sides ...