After 99 days, Major League Baseball has lifted its lockout as the owners and players finally came to a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement on Thursday. Opening Day may have been delayed but the season won’t be lost. Do you have questions about how it happened and what comes next? We have some answers.
Q: What got the deal done?
A: For a long time, the competitive balance tax thresholds were the biggest hurdle to clear, but in the final days of the lockout, it was the prospect of an international draft. After failing to agree on it by the latest “deadline” Wednesday, owners and players reached a deal Thursday to have until July 25 to negotiate the specifics of a new international draft that would begin in 2024. If they are able to reach a deal by that deadline, the qualifying offer would be removed. But if no deal is reached, the current international-entry and qualifying-offer systems would remain status quo.
Once that was squared away, the owners came back with one more offer and raised some of the numbers on core economic issues, which player reps and the MLB Players Association’s executive subcommittee voted in favor of 26-12.
APQ: Now what?
A: Mayhem. After 99 days of mostly waiting, there will be a mad rush of action in the next few days. Once the owners voted to ratify the deal, player transactions were set to unfreeze, with an avalanche of free-agent signings and trades expected to go down in a hurry.
Spring training camps will be open to players beginning Friday — 40-man players had been barred from team complexes during the lockout — with the mandatory spring training report date being Sunday.
Q: Will there be spring training games?
A: Yes — fewer than the amount originally scheduled, but Grapefruit League and Cactus League games will begin on March 17.
Q: When is Opening Day?
A: The new and official Opening Day is April 7. For the Yankees, that means hosting the Red Sox in The Bronx. For the Mets, that means a game against the Nationals in Washington.
Q: Will teams still play a full 162-game season?
A: Yes. Despite commissioner Rob Manfred announcing last week that he was canceling the first two series of the season and then removing two more from the schedule on Wednesday, they will all be played by the time the regular season ends. That means 2022 won’t join 1994-1995 as MLB work stoppages that cost the sport games.
As such, players will be paid their full 162-game salaries — a prospect that was running out of time if the lockout had lasted much longer.
Q: What about the series that were “canceled?”
A: One of the series will be made up at the end of the regular season, extending it by three days. The other will be made up in doubleheaders and on previously scheduled off days.
Q: What are the on-field/visible changes that will come with the new CBA?
A: After much talk about it, the universal DH is finally here. That means no more pitchers hitting in the National League, unless we’re talking about Shohei Ohtani.
The other big change is the playoffs expanding to 12 teams. The postseason had been a 10-team field since 2012, but there will now be a third wild card in each league.
Additionally, seven-inning doubleheaders and the “Manfred Man” — automatic runners starting on second base in extra innings — are history. They came into the game during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, but are now things of the past.
Q: What about the shift?
A: The shift lives on, at least for now, though it may not be around for long. Rule changes like banning the shift, the implementation of a pitch clock and using bigger bases will be subject to a joint committee made up of six MLB representatives, four players and one umpire, with voting starting in 2023.
