Baseball is Back!

Yesterday afternoon, the MLBPA voted 26-12 to accept the terms of MLB's latest collective bargaining agreement, and later that same day it was ratified unanimously by the owners, thus ending the 2nd longest work stoppage in baseball history at 99 days.  It was a long, ugly, and I would argue entirely preventable process, and with pending rule changes and an international draft this saga certainly isn't over, but let's not overthink the most important part of this glorious day - BASEBALL IS BACK!!!

Many better writers than I who do this for a living have already dissected this far better than I could ever regurgitate, so I suggest you follow Jeff Passan or Buster Olney for further details.  There is a lot of rhetoric out there on who came out on top of these negotiations, and even the pundits disagree, but the one thing I will say is that this is about as fair of an agreement that anybody could have hoped for.  And by that I mean - yes the owners still came out on top, but that was expected, so any small victories by the players should be considered a win.  I'll outline the nuts-and-bolts of what is included in the new 5-year CBA here:

• Minimum player salary increases from $570,000 to $700,000, and increases by $20,000 annually until this agreement expires after the 2026 season.
• Competitive Balance Tax (essentially baseball's version of a salary cap, sometimes known as the "luxury tax") increases from $210M to $230M, and increases to $244M by the end of the agreement, as well as increased "penalties" for going over certain thresholds as it is not a hard cap.
• Postseason expands from 10 to 12 teams, eliminating the Game 163 tiebreakers and Wild Card single-elimination games in favor of a true "wild card round" similar to football.  The #1 and #2 seeds in each league would get a bye and the #3 thru 6 seeds would battle in best-of-3 series.
• Creation of a $50M pre-arbitration bonus pool that would be divided amongst the top 100 players, as determined by a yet-to-be-formed committee.  This was a big win by the players in an attempt to get younger players paid earlier in their careers.  This is something completely new that has never existed and owners were vehemently against at the start of negotiations.
• Number of options limited to 5 per player per season.  Previously a player could be optioned essentially an infinite number of times in any option year.
• Universal DH in both leagues
• Increased slot value in MLB Draft
• Creation of a draft lottery similar to the NBA.  The 18 non-playoff teams will go into a lottery for a chance to win one of the top 6 picks.
• Contracts for all arbitration-eligible players will be guaranteed.  While baseball is widely known to have free agent contracts be 100% guaranteed, previously arbitration-eligible players could be non-tendered at any time and not paid.
• Any player that finishes in the top 2 of ROY voting will accrue a full year of service time eligibility regardless of when they were called up
• Still on the table for ongoing negotiations:
• International Draft, which will be tied to the removal of draft pick compensation for free agents signing with another team
• Enlarging bases for safety reasons
• Modifying shifts or banning altogether
• Pitch clocks

A lot to digest here, but again I will reiterate that the players definitely made some unexpected strides here, a FULL SEASON of baseball is back - and hopefully this means Erik and I can go on a trip this year!  It will be interesting to see how fans of a sport already waning in popularity responds to this.  Over 5,000 opening day Brewers tickets sold out in less than 10 minutes this afternoon, so at least in Milwaukee I am guessing this will not affect attendance one bit.