MLB lockout is lifted: The ins and outs of the new labor agreement

Mac Cerullo, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
·3 min read

Mar. 10—After nearly 100 days, Major League Baseball's lockout is finally over.

MLB's owners and players reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal Thursday, ending the sport's second longest work stoppage and ensuring that a full 162-game schedule can be played. The league announced the deal on MLB.com and is expected to formally ratify it by day's end.

The expectation is that spring training will begin on Sunday and that Opening Day will now be April 7, and all games previously removed from the schedule will be made up. Free agency could resume as soon as Thursday night.

The players reportedly voted 26-12 in favor of the league's last offer, which included additional concessions on the core economic issues that largely dominated the discussions. The vote included each of the 30 clubs' player representatives and the eight members of the MLB Players Association Executive Subcommittee.

The agreement came after months of acrimonious talks, which in recent weeks went off the rails at key points and resulted in Opening Day twice being pushed back. The last major stumbling block proved to be the international draft, a league priority that the owners tried to tie to eliminating the qualifying offer system, where teams that sign certain free agents compensate the player's former team with draft picks.

The players rejected the owners' proposals on that issue but eventually the two sides reached a compromise where the qualifying offer system would be eliminated as long as the international draft was looked into further. If the draft weren't implemented by July 25, then things would go back to the status quo.

Among the terms of the new deal, per multiple reports:

* The competitive balance tax threshold will be set at $230 million in 2022 and will rise to $244 million by 2026. The CBT was $210 million in 2021.

* A minimum salary of $700,000 in 2022 rising by $20,000 annually through the end of the deal. The minimum salary was $570,500 in 2021.

* A new pre-arbitration bonus pool of $50 million to benefit top young players who are not yet eligible for salary arbitration.

* A universal designated hitter in both the American League and National League.

* A 12-team postseason.

* The MLB Draft will be set at 20 rounds and will include a draft lottery for the first six picks to discourage tanking.

* The Rookie of the Year Award winners will receive a full year's worth of service time regardless of whether they started the season in the big leagues or not.

* Additional draft-pick inducements to discourage service-time manipulation.

* Players can be optioned to the minor leagues up to five times per year.

* Player uniforms will feature advertising, including patches on jerseys and decals on batting helmets.

* The league will have a 45-day window to implement rule changes, including a pitch clock, ban on shifts and larger bases for the 2023 season. Previously the league had to provide players with one year's notice of any such changes.

The deal comes 99 days after MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred originally imposed the lockout on Dec. 1 following the expiration of the prior CBA. Manfred said then that he hoped the lockout would help jumpstart negotiations, but talks floundered for six weeks before the two sides got back together. Progress remained slow up until late February, at which point the two sides finally began inching closer to an accord.

Now, baseball is assured at least five years of labor peace.