Major League Baseball’s shutdown has ended.
MLB owners and the players’ union agreed a new collective bargaining agreement on Thursday, ending the 99-day shutdown that began on December 2. This was the second longest layoff in MLB history.
The owners made the final offer to the players in the early hours of Thursday afternoon, and the deal was agreed upon by the players by 26 votes to 12. Representatives of the 30 players voted 26-4 in favor of the deal, while the eight members of the Executive Subcommittee voted 8-0 against the deal, According to MLB Network’s John Heyman. The owners then voted 30-0 to ratify the deal later Thursday evening, putting an official end to the closing.
Despite MLB-imposed deadlines of February 28 and March 9 to save an entire season, no matches will be missed in 2022. Each team will play a 162-game roster, with the opening day set for April 7 – exactly one week after it was scheduled. The date was originally scheduled for March 31. The end of the season will be extended by an additional three days, and double players will be played with nine runs to make up for lost time. Players will receive their full salaries in 2022.
Players must report for Spring Training by Sunday, March 13, and the free agency can reopen as soon as Thursday night.
Here are the other key details of the new collective bargaining agreement (via Jeff Bassan from ESPN):
- A 12-team stadium after the season ends, with six teams in each league in the playoffs.
- Similar to the NBA, ads with patches on shirts and decals on batting helmets will be allowed.
- 45-day period for the MLB to implement rule changes – among them: the pitch clock, the ban on shifts and the bigger rules of the 2023 season.
- The designated hitter will be used in each of the tournaments.
- A lottery project will be carried out, hoping to discourage tanks.
- Draft picking incentives to discourage manipulation of service time (similar to Chris Bryant’s 2015 situation).
- There will be a limited number of times a player can be selected in the minor leagues in a single season.
