It’s that time of the decade again. The point where finances seep into America’s past time.

Over the last couple days, the MLB Players Association and Major League Baseball submitted their initial proposals for the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement, with the current CBA set to expire on Dec. 1.

The expectations have been that there could be a work stoppage – more than likely a lockout, honestly – due to the relationship between the union and the owners still resembling a couple filing for a ugly divorce.

Before getting into the meat of it, I come from a union family. And while the idea of siding with business owners normally would be unthinkable, the owners getting their way would have a more positive effect on baseball.

The owners proposed instituting a salary cap and salary floor.

Cleveland fans are all too familiar with what happened the last time the idea of a cap was introduced during labor negotiations. It led to the 1994 strike, and it canceled a World Series that Indians fans thought could have been theirs if the season continued.

The fallout of the strike was only saved by the hype players that were later connected to the steroid era. And as a result, the owners didn’t push for a cap until Thursday.

The cap submitted Thursday was set at $245.3 million and the floor was $171.2 million. Expenditures outside of a player’s salary would also be counted against the cap, such as benefits.

The owners also proposed a 50/50 split in revenue and the consolidation of television rights, which would be distributed to the teams. This is more or less the same way the NFL, NBA and NHL operate.

On Wednesday, the union got things started with its proposal.

The players offered a “competitive-integrity tax for teams with payrolls under $150 million, an increase in the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1.5 million, an increase in the Competition Balance Tax threshold from $244 million to $300 million, free agency for 30-year-old players with five years of service time and an increase in local TV revenue distribution but a decrease in distribution of in-stadium revenue, such as concession sales.

MLB needs a salary cap and a floor, with the sports revenues consolidated under one umbrella. It’s the only real way to fix the financial issues that have plagued the sport for decades.

The installation of a floor, which would require cheap teams to spend, won’t fix one of the biggest problems: star availability.

As teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets open their wallets every winter, more superstar players join their rosters. But there are only so many of those players to go around.

And there’s no guarantee that smaller teams would spend top dollar on a prized free agent to suddenly make sure they’re over the floor. Not to mention, it doesn’t prevent the Dodgers or Mets from overpaying players.

Instituting a cap and a floor would require teams to pay more to the average player while also not pricing smaller markets out of top free agents, but it would also prevent the large markets from collecting the stars.

The fact is, there are three groups that make up a fan base: people who only care about wins, those who want to see talented players and people who want both.

The NBA and NHL went through similar situations in the last 25 years.

After years of labor strife after the cap installation, the NHL finally started to see a turnaround in the last five years. With contenders emerging from states like Florida, Texas and Carolina, the NHL finally got back on ESPN and other national broadcasts.

The NBA already had its cap, but the “Super Teams” era opened commissioner Adam Silver’s eyes to the importance of star distribution. In recent years the NBA moved away from the Golden State Warriors dynasty and teams filled with free agent and trade talent. Instead, they pushed for stars to remain on the teams that drafted them.

These were just the first rounds of proposals, and they will be far from the last as future submissions should start to meet in the middle.

Who knows if MLB will finally fix its finances to become more in line with the three other major sports leagues, but this could be the worst labor negotiation the MLB has seen since 1994.