2021 Collective Bargaining Negotiations

allentown 2022-03-12 00:42:37 UTC #362

This will significantly impact draft strategy, as teams will be unable to build a big pile of cash with significantly below-slot signings of college seniors, etc., in rounds 4-10 in order to pay bigger bonuses to HS kids in rounds 11-13 or above slot to the top prospects in rounds 1-3. You can bet that any agent of a college senior or prospect outside the top 100 will have his guy lining up for the physical. May increase teams drafting pitchers earlier, since reduced chance of an injured arm slipping through. Look for pitchers who refuse the physical to slip in the draft.

Philsmania 2022-03-12 01:51:07 UTC #363

It's really not fair that New York teams have such an unfair advantage over the rest of MLB. They should be excluded from the first ten rounds of the MLB draft.

andyb 2022-03-12 01:55:26 UTC #364

The player could still sign for less than 75% of slot. Just would need to be enough to skip free agency. Remember these senior signs would not get much on the open market anyway.

allentown 2022-03-12 03:08:17 UTC #365

But if they elect FA, then the drafting team loses that slot money. That gives the draftee more bargaining power.

zambonir 2022-03-12 03:22:51 UTC #366

Don't they just get a pick in the next draft though?

allentown 2022-03-12 03:24:29 UTC #367

Not unless the rules were changed. Perhaps rounds 1 to 3 are protected, rounds 4 through 10 are not, and if you don't sign a player, you don't get to spend that money elsewhere. Currently you just go down one pick in next year's draft if you lose a first rounder, I think the same if you lose a 2nd rounder, but you fall to comp round between round 3 and 4 if you don't sign a 3rd round pick.

zambonir 2022-03-12 03:44:14 UTC #368

Stark on the schedule. So yeah, 14 division games instead of 19, and 6 each against the other NL teams. But we'll see a lot less of of the AL East. I don't even know, who is the Phillies' designated interleague rival now, Boston or Toronto (or will it continue to rotate)? Point is, it's not either of the two teams that are closest and actually feel like rivals.

INTERLEAGUE SCHEDULE (46): Here’s how this works: Every team plays its interleague “rival” (Mets-Yankees, Cubs-White Sox, you know the deal) four times — two at home, two on the road. (Current total: four or six games, depending on the season)

As for the other 14 teams in the opposite league, you’ll play three games against every one of them. Half are at home. Half are on the road. Then that will flip the following year. So if you miss Mike Trout in your NL city one year, he visits the next year. Get the picture? (Current total: three or four games each versus either four or five nonrival interleague opponents)

andyb 2022-03-12 13:49:13 UTC #369

Here's a new wrinkle in the labor deal I wasn't aware of:

The Jacob Nottingham Rule!

If a team has already claimed a player once on waivers that season, it can't claim him again until every other team has passed

Nottingham zig-zagged from Seattle to Milwaukee 4 times last year
— Jayson Stark ( @jaysonst ) March 11, 2022

No problem with this rule though the fundamental problem of the 40-man roster being too small for today's baseball remains. Marginal relievers bounce on and off rosters because they are not too good to lose - and somebody needs a marginal pitcher more at any point of time. A larger 40-man roster let's a Nottingham or other marginal reliever stay in place much of the season and there is likely just as much major league opportunity as getting bounced between various club's rosters.

The 3 years of options and not the limit of 5 options a year are enough to prevent too much roster abuse and stashing of prospects. The reality is almost everyone on the 40-man gets a chance to play these days.

bkox 2022-03-12 18:09:46 UTC #370

Luxury Tax Info: Under the new CBA, even if #Mets owner Steve Cohen decides to have a $300M payroll this year, surpassing the new $290M threshold, it would actually cost him only an additional $1.75M tax surcharge compared to the previous CBA ($8M vs. $6.25M).
— Bob Nightengale ( @BNightengale ) March 12, 2022

xogfog 2022-03-12 19:25:56 UTC #371

With the luxury tax going up each year, couldn't a team structure a new free agent contract to increase each year to coincide with the tax increase? The Phillies should sign Correa and structure his contract so the total money works out with the staggered tax increases.

zambonir 2022-03-12 19:35:23 UTC #372

I assume the tax hit is still based on average annual value.

xogfog 2022-03-12 19:41:03 UTC #373

How could that be? They only hit the tax if the payroll for that specific year exceeds the cap. The payroll is specifically what each contract is for that specific year, so that does not compute.

andyb 2022-03-12 19:41:30 UTC #374

I think there are other penalties for going over beyond the monetary though. There used to be on the second tier where the first draft pick was moved back 10 spots. Possible these penalties are more severe on that 3rd tier.

There were also repeater tax increases. Mets are not a repeater this year, but if those increased penalties remain it will be difficult for the Mets to get under next year if they go $60 or $70 million over.

allentown 2022-03-12 19:43:03 UTC #375

I don't think that's true. Average value has always been used in that calculation, which has always been based upon adjusted payroll (avg. contract value, what other teams pay of your salary-- what you pay of theirs, the league surcharge for player-related expenses).

zambonir 2022-03-12 19:53:52 UTC #376

It is that way to prevent the exact thing you are suggesting. The CBT number and the payroll are not the same, which is also the case in all the salary cap leagues. A player's cap # and his paycheck are always different.

allentown 2022-03-12 20:26:14 UTC #377

Washington Post article on the different votes taken by the Boras-dominated negotiating committee and the team reps:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/03/11/baseball-players-union-voting/

bkox 2022-03-13 15:34:40 UTC #378

First time Ive heard about this change

Dave Dombrowski said the IL stint for pitchers is now back to 15 days. Was 10 in the last couple seasons.
— Destiny Lugardo ( @destiny_lugardo ) March 13, 2022

zambonir 2022-03-14 20:00:14 UTC #379

I think I already predicted this

andyb 2022-03-16 18:18:37 UTC #380

The Athletic has a more detailed summary of rule changes.

The $150K for undrafted players that does not apply to the draft pool is real. It also does look like the overall slot values will increase at the rate of baseball revenues. I hope both of these apply to the international draft proposal too.

There is a little more here on bonus draft picks for prospects that play a full year. Top 100 ranking by BA, MLB.com, or ESPN is required. I guess this means there will be a pool of 110-120 players eligible every year though more than half of those prospects will not be in the upper minors. There is also the possibility of at least 3 bonus picks. One in the draft and 2 in the international draft in 3 successive years because the bonus is awarded at any point in the pre-arbitration period (ROY or top 3 in Cy Young or MVP).

It does seem really hard to get these bonus picks, and of course there is incentive to keep that prospect down an extra month so they do not place high in the ROY vote. IMO these service time manipulation will do nothing as it will take a Mike Trout type player for a team to really benefit.

julio 2022-03-16 18:41:16 UTC #381

Does this apply in 2022, or not until 2023 (when the rest of the draft changes kick in)?

I'm chomping at the bit to see the actual CBA document (and the revised MLB Rules) - but realistically, neither of these documents likely exists in final form yet. At some point, both of them will be posted to the MLBPA's documents page for player agents.