MLB, MLBPA Agree to New CBA; Opening Day Expected to Be April 7

According to Jeff Passan, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement.

Jeff Passan @JeffPassan

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:<br> <br>Baseball is back.

Jeff Passan @JeffPassan

Players can report to spring-training camps as early as tomorrow. Opening Day is expected to be April 7, as @JesseRogersESPN first reported. Transactions unfreeze upon ratification, which is expected to come as early as today, meaning free agents can sign and trades can occur.

The previous collective bargaining agreement expired in December and team owners started a lockout. The labor peace of 1995 was an especially long period of labor peace for the league.

The players voted 26-12 to approve the new collective bargaining agreement, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the new CBA will feature.

Evan Drellich @EvanDrellich

Some final details of a CBA where players made some notable gains:<br>• Pre-arb bonus pool at $50m<br>• Min salary: $700k, $720k, 740k, $760k, $780k<br>• CBT: $230m-$244m<br>• Draft lottery at 6 picks <br>• Universal DH<br>• Amateur draft is 20 rounds<br>• Player can be optioned 5 times per yr

There is a third surcharge on the competitive balance tax.

Fans were expecting tense negotiations between owners and players, and they were not surprised by the lockout. The bigger question was whether the situation would drag into the spring or jeopardize the regular season.

The first week of spring training was lost. The deadline for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was set by MLB in order to start the regular season on time. Multiple reports surfaced about the entire first month potentially being lost.

Evan Drellich @EvanDrellich

MLB today indicated a willingness to miss a month of games and took a more threatening tone than yesterday, sources briefed on the day’s first meeting between MLB and the Players Association tell me, @Ken_Rosenthal and @FabianArdaya. Full context of conversation not yet known.

Jeff Passan @JeffPassan

The rhetoric is ratcheting up. As @EvanDrellich said, MLB suggested in the first meeting with the MLBPA today that the league is willing to cancel a month's worth of games. What that means, or whether it's simply a threat, is unclear, but players have taken it as a clear threat.

The day ended without a deal and with great uncertainty about the start of the regular season.

After the sides failed to reach an agreement following an extended negotiation session, the opening day of the baseball season was postponed until April 14.

The first two series of the regular season were canceled.

The start of the season will only be delayed one week if April 7 is Opening Day.

The international draft was one of the main sticking points in the negotiations. The sides were able to set some parameters during negotiations.

Evan Drellich @EvanDrellich

MLB, MLBPA agree to negotiate on international draft until July 25. Draft pick compensation will be removed if they agree by then to remove it. Status quo on international entry and draft compensation if no deal by then. The union says it is awaiting a counterproposal from MLB.

Prior to the extended deadline, it looked as though the two sides were close to a resolution. Ross Stripling, who represents his team with the MLBPA, told Sportsnet that MLB wasn't being completely transparent with its offer.

"It got to be like 12:30 and the fine print of their CBT proposal was stuff we had never seen before. They were trying to sneak things through us, it was like they think we’re dumb baseball players and we get sleepy after midnight or something. It’s like that stupid football quote, they are who we thought they were. They did exactly what we thought they would do. They pushed us to a deadline that they imposed, and then they tried to sneak some shit past us at that deadline and we were ready for it. We’ve been ready for five years. And then they tried to flip it on us today in PR, saying that we’ve changed our tone and tried to make it look like it was our fault. That never happened."

The next collective bargaining agreement could have a significant impact on baseball.

The winter saw a lot of spending on marquee free agents, but the general trend has gone in the opposite direction in recent years.

The owners tabled a plan last August to raise the salary floor to $100 million but lower the luxury tax from $210 million to $180 million.

Many argue that the luxury tax is a way to institute a salary cap in MLB.

Brandon Wile @Brandon_N_Wile

As one agent told theScore after MLB made its latest offer to the players on Saturday: "They are creating a salary cap." https://t.co/SUX4zrgGTO

Bob Nightengale @BNightengale

Max Scherzer points out that the luxury tax is acting more like a salary cap considering the #Padres had a higher payroll than the #Yankees last year.

One of the widest gaps in these negotiations exists between the way the owners and players view the economics of the game.

"Both sides agree, in theory, on the reason for this discrepancy: Less experienced players and veterans who are not stars are compensated in a way that allows teams to lean heavily on cheap, young labor. That tendency comes at the expense of veterans; players who wait years to reach free agency don't always find a market eager to pay them."

The MLB and the MLBPA were at odds over how to address the problem.

Overhauling how and to what extent players are compensated is the kind of thing that requires lengthy negotiations and posturing from both sides.

The MLB and the MLBPA were given a strong incentive to hammer out a new deal as quickly as possible. Nobody benefits when the league removes individual player photos and reports less on major stories around the game.

In November, he made the case that the labor dispute that costs games isn't the same as the offseason Lockout that moves the process forward.

The NBA lost a portion of its season to a labor dispute, so it is not a magic bullet to get a deal done. The NHL didn't stage a 2004-05 season until after another labor dispute forced the cancellation of some games.

To understand the long-term ramifications of a labor battle, Gary Bettman needed to reach out to his counterpart in the NHL. It took hockey years to dig out of the hole it created.

MLB attendance and viewers were down for the 2021 season. The perception is that the league is losing ground to other sports, with pace of play being one area that needs a boost.

The greatest crisis the game faces is the league executive said to Tom Verducci.

Baseball fans will be happy to see the return of games, and the action on the diamond will help push the lockout out of memory.

The true cost of the labor dispute may not be seen for a while.