Major League Baseball has ended its lockout. The MLBPA and MLB have reached a 5-year agreement, subject to ratification. The new agreement touches on multiple contention points between the two parties, although an international draft, which was the final major area of disagreement, will remain under “evaluation.”
According to some reports, this agreement also includes:
- Increase in minimum salaries
- A draft lottery system to, at least in theory, reduce the temptation to tank in order to enhance a team’s draft position;
- Draft pick penalties designed to dissuade deliberate player time manipulation. This refers to the number of major league days that a player plays in, in an effort to reduce salary considerations.
- A post-season expanded from the current 10-12 teams
- An universally designated hitter
- Marketing on baseball jerseys and helmets. We at the sports desk, located beneath decks on the Good Pirate Ship RedState, aren’t amused.
Players have the option of reporting starting on Friday. Spring training begins Sunday, February 13th. Regular season begins on Thursday, April 7. There will be 162 regular-season games. The games that were cancelled earlier in negotiations will be replaced by scheduled doubleheaders. MLB will be merciful and eliminate two gimmicks from previous years, seven-inning doubleheader games as well extra-inning games that had a runner at second base at each in-inning.
Although we assume that ratification will occur, which would ensure labor peace over the next five-years, there are still major structural problems in baseball’s financial operations, in comparison to other major professional sports. Teams that do not want to compete aren’t under any obligation to pay a salary cap at both the top or bottom.
For example, it is almost a given that the Oakland A’s, doing some housecleaning for what seems to be their inevitable move to Las Vegas in the next few years, will trade star players Matt Olson and Matt Chapman ASAP, rather than make even a nominal effort to re-sign them in this, the final year of their present contracts. While the team and the city argue endlessly over the possibility of a new baseball park, they will make this trade under the pretext of being poor and unable to attend the Oakland Coliseum. Minus a minimum salary cap, the A’s, Pirates, Orioles, and others will continue to embarrass their few remaining fans by refusing to spend the necessary dollars to be competitive. Even Tampa Bay is starting to loosen the purse strings, with the San Diego Padres spending insanely in order to be competitive against their wealthy arch-rivals Los Angeles Dodgers. CBA 2.0 promises to deliver more of the same financial chicanery.
We have at least major league baseball. Still thinking I’m going to see if the Lansing Lugnuts can be caught on a streaming network somewhere, though.
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