Baseball’s new CBA is done

This new draft pick compensation system will not apply during the current free agent crop, but will begin next offseason. Neither will the deal expand the size of regular season rosters.

As ESPN’s Buster Olney notes above, that could significantly change how the big spenders approach free agency.

Under the new contract, the All-Star Game no longer decides World Series home field.

The Associated Press reported that the league’s minimum time on a disabled list will go from 15 to 10 days.

In announcing the agreement, Major League Baseball said it will make specific terms available when drafting is complete. However, players that are now in the Majors are grandfathered in and are allowed to use smokeless tobacco. With that in mind, owners dropped their hopes of imposing an worldwide draft on foreign-born amateurs. For context, that’s just about 16 percent of Yoan Moncada’s signing bonus from a couple periods ago, not including the tax portion. The contract runs four-years and is worth $110 million.

The aforementioned luxury tax threshold will increase from $189 million last season to $195 million this upcoming year.

Some teams looking to spend big were not certain of the new luxury tax threshold, and thus, could not operate with enough certainty. The rate will increase from the current 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent of excess payments for first offenders, remain at 30 per cent for second offenders and rise from 40 per cent to 50 per cent for third offenders. Those offenders would pay an additional surcharge of 12 percent. But believe it or not, the luxury tax correlates with the qualifying offers. So, for example, the Mets can not offer Neil Walker another qualifying offer next offseason since he was issued a qualifying offer this offseason. A team signing a qualifying-offer free agent could lose second- and fifth-round picks and $1 million of global money if it exceeds the luxury-tax threshold in doing so. The luxury tax was among the final issues in talks that included topics such as compensation following the loss of free agents and management’s desire for an worldwide draft. Major League Baseball has argued the system is rife with corruption. It is a little surprising they did not address this in the new CBA as pace of play was emphasized by Major League Baseball the last several years. This means that half the league will fall under the former category, and half the league will fall under the latter category. There will also be a new draft-pick drop for teams exceeding the threshold by $40 million or more.

Changes have also reportedly been agreed to in the draft pick compensation process involved with the signing of free agents. In 2017, it appears the Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, and Tigers will be the quartet of teams that will receive a luxury tax bill. The 1994-95 players” strike caused the cancellation of the “94 World Series and had a years-long negative impact on the game and its fans. Overall, the season will extend by about four to five days.