We Will Have Baseball

Jeff Passon reporting that the agreement is all done except for the final count - players are voting in favor contrary to what the bargaining unit wanted. The owners have pretty much raised the ante - figures may not be what the players originally asked but they made a big step forward. Hopefully we have a long time before the next CBA We will have a 162 game season with all games made up either 9-inning DHers or mutual off days.

Joel SHerman reports in the Post:
At long last, it’s time to play ball.

After a lockout that spanned 99 days, MLB and the MLB Players Association reached a tentative agreement on Thursday afternoon, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The two sides finally found the common ground to reach a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement, paving the way for the regular season to begin by next month.

Following a contentious battle that blew past multiple league-instituted “deadlines” over the past week-plus – which threatened to do further damage to the sport the longer it lingered – baseball has labor peace once again. Both sides need to ratify the deal, but that is the expected outcome.

While the competitive balance tax thresholds appeared to be the biggest hurdle for most of the negotiations, the hangup on Wednesday – leading to commissioner Rob Manfred announcing that two more series (making it four total) had been “removed from the schedule” – was over the league’s proposal to introduce an international draft in exchange for eliminating the qualifying offer, which the union declined.

He further reports:
he new CBA also includes increased luxury tax thresholds, higher minimum salaries and a pre-arbitration bonus pool for the top young players, among other issues.

Once the lockout and freeze on player transactions are officially lifted – Manfred and the owners imposed them on Dec. 2 after the previous CBA expired – there is expected to be a mad rush of signings and trades before players report to spring training. Big names such as Carlos Correa, Freddie Freeman, Kris Bryant, Trevor Story and Carlos Rodon remain on the market and could quickly find new teams as baseball gets back into business.