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Jeff BassanESPN
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached a preliminary agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday, ending the league’s 99-day shutdown for players and saving a 162-game season, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
With the end of the second longest layoff in the game’s history, spring training camps will open on Sunday, free agent signings can begin Thursday night, and baseball will attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy after months of fraught negotiations.
The deal materialized after talks escalated this week, when the university submitted a proposal to bridge the huge competitive balance tax gap, a major issue in the final stages of talks. The dispute over an international draft threatened negotiations and caused two more series to be “deleted” from the league table Wednesday, but these issues were resolved Thursday morning and the League handed a full proposal to the federation, which voted to accept it.
Sources told ESPN that the final vote by eight MLBPA members of the Executive Subcommittee and 30 representatives was 26-12 representatives in favor of the agreement.
The Basic Agreement governs nearly all aspects of the game, but the basic economics of baseball has been front and center in the business conversations. In addition to the CBT move, the minimum salary that governs players with less than three years of service in the Major League will jump from $570,500 to $700,000, grow to $780,000, and a bonus pool of 50 million will be distributed dollars on those younger players who haven’t yet. Access to salary arbitration.
It pushed MLB to expand the post-season to 12 teams – a plan that the MLBPA agreed to. Additionally, players’ costumes will feature advertisements for the first time, with patches on T-shirts and decals on batting helmets.
Other elements of the deal include:
• 45-day period for MLB to implement rule changes – including court clock, shift bans and larger rules of the 2023 season
• Adoption of the National League designated hitter
• A lottery project implemented with the intention of discouraging tanks
Draft picking incentives to discourage tampering with service time
• Determining the number of times a player can be selected in the minor leagues in a season
Talks about a new basic agreement began last year and moved slowly through to the expiration of its previous version on December 1. The league and union had made little progress in the previous months, and commissioner Rob Manfred shut down players shortly after midnight. 2 dec. A 43-day hiatus in negotiations ensued, and by the time spring training was scheduled to open in mid-February and had rolled in, the gaps between the parties were large enough to increase the likelihood of losing regular season matches.
Manfred’s cancellation of the opening day a week ago alarmed the players, who, after negotiations in 2016 that led to dire economic consequences, were intent on making significant financial gains after 2022. Players’ salaries had fallen over the past four seasons despite rising revenue that outperformed At an estimated $10.7 billion in 2019. The surge in franchise values — which have nearly quadrupled during the last two major deals — has become a rallying cry for gamers.
At the same time, the League, satisfied with the current economic system, retracted the huge gains that the players had hoped to reap. Giving the front end of CBT allowed it to push for smaller year-over-year increases, and while guarantees for younger players were around $100 million, the game’s uncapped system allows teams to spend less on older players to balance out added costs.
In the end, baseball, a game that continues to find an echo in the world of entertainment and sports with endless viewing options, ended up avoiding the doomsday scenario of a long hiatus wiping out a good portion of the season. Now comes the period of frantic free agent that will witness a brief hiatus for the stars Carlos Correafirst man base Freddy Freemanshortstop Trevor’s storyjar Clayton Kershawthird base man Chris Bryant Others sign. Oakland A can trade first baseman Matt Olsonthird base man Matt Chapman And a number of starting pitchers.
And while Opening Day won’t happen on March 31, baseball will return in early April hoping for five years of labor peace, five years of prosperity and five years to erase this winter’s ugliness.