The MLB lockout is over.
Today, the league and the Players’ Union finally came to an agreement on a new CBA. The players voted 26-12 in favor of the new deal.
Minimum salary, CBT thresholds and pre-arbitration bonus pool money, the three major issues that were holding up a deal, with the exception of yesterday’s little scare with the international draft proposal, have been agreed on.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the latest proposal from the owners entailed increasing the amount of pre-arbitration bonus pool money to $50 million, and having the luxury tax thresholds go from $230 million to $244 million over the course of a five-year deal. Minimum salaries will start at $700K and go to $780K, increasing $10K in the final year of the deal.
The season will begin on Thursday, April 7 and last a full 162 games. The games that were previously taken off the schedule will either be made up via doubleheaders or tacked on to the end of the schedule. The postseason will be expanded to 12 teams, with the lowest seeded division winner and the top Wild Card team in each league hosting the remaining two Wild Card teams in a best-of-three series. The universal designated hitter was also agreed upon.
Now, baseball is finally back, and we can celebrate like they did at the end of Return of the Jedi after the Death Star blew up. The only difference is, we won’t have any Ewoks.
But all jokes aside, it’s great to finally have baseball back. Free agency will start up again tonight and players will report to Spring Training no later than March 13.
According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, Spring Training games will begin around March 17. We won’t have to wait much longer for baseball to officially return and kick off the spring season.
All is right with the sports world now!
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