Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached an agreement Thursday on a new collective bargaining agreement that ended the lockout imposed by the league’s owners.
The union voted to approve the new proposal by a margin of 26-12 (a simple majority, or 20 votes, was all that was required to pass the new agreement, but notably, all eight members of the executive subcommittee voted against). The owners ratified the new five-year CBA on Thursday evening with a 30-0 vote in favor. MLB off-season business (trade and free agency) is expected soon. Players will head to spring training in the coming days, with MLB teams due to play a full 162-game season in 2022. Opening day is April 7, according to Jim Bowden of CBS Sports Headquarters.
The lockout ended on the 99th day. The owners first enforced the lockout on December 2 when the previous CBA expired, marking the first shutdown of MLB operations since the 1994-95 players’ strike. Although the league described the act as a defense mechanism that it hoped would speed up negotiations, the owners waited over six weeks to make their first offer. Negotiations finally flared up in the last week of February, when both sides met daily in Florida. The agreement was reached on Thursday after many hours of talks this week in New York.
Here are some of the noteworthy details from the accepted proposal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic:
- CPT threshold: $230 million in 2023 and will peak at $244 million in the final year of the CBA.
- CBT penalty level: introduction of a new tier that starts at $60 million over the threshold (the highest used to be $40 million over the threshold);
- Minimal salary: $700,000 and peaks at $780,000 in the final year of the CBA;
- Bonus pool before arbitrage: $50 million
- Post-season format: 12 teams
Commissioner Rob Manfred previously announced the cancellation of the first two weeks of the 2022 regular season when negotiations stalled but all games were back on schedule. The opening day was originally scheduled for March 31st, and games that were lost in the first week are reportedly made up for with days off and doubleheaders.
Throughout the process, the union sought to raise the league’s minimum wage and competitive balance tax thresholds; implement a centralized bonus pool for pre-arbitrage players based on performance; and introduce some measures that curb anti-competitive behaviour, such as tanking. The owners, for their part, prioritized an extended playoff, an international draft, and the ability to make rule changes, including potentially setting field clocks and larger bases, and limiting defensive positioning.
It was the first shutout in league history to jeopardize the regular season.
Here are five takeaways from the new CBA.
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1. The deal took a scenic route
It took 99 days from the start of the lockout (December 2) for a deal to be struck, making it the longest lockout in league history, as well as the first to jeopardize the regular season. (The previous record was held by the 1990 lockout, which lasted 32 days.)
The owners waited over six weeks after the lock was installed to make their first offer to the players. Then the two sides met here and there, but it wasn’t until the end of February that they began to meet several times, in person, on a daily basis.
The league officially canceled the first two episodes of the season on March 1, but the sides remained busy and continued to hit the league’s artificial deadline after the league’s artificial deadline. Even Thursday, the league set a “deadline” of 3pm ET that passed without players voting to ratify or reject the agreement, which included a provision for the union to dismiss a complaint against the league related to a shortened 2020 season. . (The union claimed that the league decided to play fewer games than it could.)
Despite all the public controversy and false start negotiations, the league and union were able to keep the 162-game season, albeit in a modified format.
2. More money for young players
One of the union’s main goals in these negotiations was to reward players who were in the early stages of their careers. The reward system in MLB is designed so that players with less than three years of service are essentially guaranteed to earn no more than the league minimum, no matter how well they play.
The new CBA not only raised the league minimum by more than $100,000 (from $575,500 in 2021), but also introduced a $50 million funded pre-arbitrage bonus pool. Players who are not yet eligible for arbitration will have the opportunity to earn extra cash based on their placement in the Wins Over Substitutions rankings. It won’t give them their market value or anything like that, but it’s a significant incentive for talent who would otherwise be grossly underpaid relative to their performance. During the negotiations, it was proposed to divide the money in the pool among the top 30 players before arbitration based on WAR.
3. There are now 12 teams in the postseason.
Since the inception of the Wild Card Game in 2012, 10 teams have made it to the postseason each year, with the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Now this number will increase to 12 teams. (The owners pushed for a 14-team format.) The exact details are unknown, but the league resisted the “ghost win” approach used in Japan and South Korea.
4. There will be rule changes and uniform fixes.
The aforementioned 2020 season also included the versatile DH. Of course, this CBA will make this the norm by creating 15 new starting jobs for players. As part of the agreement, the league gained the right to make rule changes for the 2023 season, including filing hours; defensive position restrictions; and installation of larger bases for health and safety reasons. Two on-field rules from the last two seasons, seven-inning doubleheads and a runner at second base to start extra innings, are not part of this new deal.
Tanking has become a hot topic in baseball over the past decade. This CBA will at least try to minimize this behavior by implementing a six-team draft lottery. The CBA also incentivizes teams to promote their best leads when they’re ready, not when it’s most financially convenient, through draft pick rewards. Players will also have a limited number of times they can be selected within a single season.
In addition to the extended postseason, the league will create a new source of revenue by allowing teams to display promotional jersey patches and helmet stickers, according to ESPN.
5. International Draft Will Generate More Conversation
As mentioned elsewhere, the two sides agreed to continue discussing the international project with a deadline of late July. If they can agree on a structure, then the draft pick compensation will disappear. Otherwise, compensation for the draft pick will be resumed, and the international amateur process will remain unchanged.