Well that was excruciating. We’ll have a lot more detail later, but for now, know that Major League Baseball is back on the menu. Just after 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, the players and owners finally reached a conclusive agreement, and after a half-hour of nail-biting to see if the players would vote to ratify, we have MLB once again.
Jeff Passan was first on it, which was only fitting after his Twitter account was hacked earlier in the day, sending everyone into fits of confusion.
BREAKING: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal, sources tell ESPN. While it still needs to be ratified by both parties, that is expected to be a formality, and when it is:
Baseball is back.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 10, 2022
The deal was reaching by tabling the International Free Agent idea and continuing to work on it until July 25th. Should a deal not be worked out, the system will stay as it is. By excising that late sticking point for the owners from the deal, the two parties were able to finally close gaps on the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) structure, the pre-arbitration bonus pools, and the major league minimum salary.
Now the wild rumpus really begins. With players needing to report to camp as quickly as possible, agents and team executives’ phones are probably already near their melt point as the offseason gets underway again under an extremely compressed schedule. This is yet another advantage for the owners in delaying this all as long as possible, but we’ll save further recrimination for later.
Right now, we’re just thrilled to have baseball back. Let’s go Tigers!
Extremely proud to be a small part of the @MLBPA !!! LETS PLAY BASEBALL BABY!!!!! Go @tigers !!!
— Tucker Barnhart (@Tucker_Barnhart) March 10, 2022