Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), is engaged in high-stakes negotiation with Major League Baseball (MLB) over the possible creation of a first-ever international draft to regulate how MLB teams select international baseball players to join their organizations. Currently, players from outside North America are treated as free agents who can sign with any team once they reach 16 years of age, a system that has worked well for some MLB teams and prospects but also created the potential for scandal, corruption, and abuse. A few months earlier, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred submitted a proposal to the MLBPA describing an international draft format acceptable to team owners and the league office. In response, Clark and his staff formulated a counterproposal that they have just submitted to Manfred. Now, Clark needs to formulate a negotiation strategy that will determine whether the MLBPA can reach an agreement with MLB on an international draft once and for all.

This case, which is paired with "Fair Play at Home Plate: Negotiating the Creation of an International Draft—Rob Manfred" (UVA-S-0447), allows instructors to set up a negotiation exercise between groups of students, some of whom receive Clark's version and some of whom receive Manfred's. Each case consists of a common general overview of MLB's history and its current environment as well as differing professional and personal details and negotiation priorities for each party. Students can apply their understanding of their version of the case to a live negotiation and use a provided worksheet to record the outcome.