MLB, players reach labor agreement

It may have come down to some dramatic, final-hour negotiations, but there will be baseball in 2017.

The peace in baseball is in contrast to the recent labor histories of other major sports.

That was no certainty considering the state of negotiations a week before the deadline.

Baseball is a $10 billion business, and owners and players in the end realized the financial ramifications would be staggering had a deal not been reached. The latest deal will last five years, extending baseball’s historic streak without a work stoppage.

The sides have discussed numerous changes to the June amateur draft. Those in the middle forfeit their second-highest pick and have their global bonus pool reduced by $500,000 next season.

The owners had interest in an worldwide draft rather than the current free-agent system, but the players balked at that proposal. As this would potentially limit player salaries, the union strongly opposed the idea. Essentially would have been fine since no games are being played at the moment.

At first glance, it appears the players conceded some economic ground – mostly at the expense of foreign amateurs – in exchange for some long-desired quality-of-life gains. However, if that team pays luxury tax, the extra draft pick would drop to after the fourth round.

The Washington Nationals are winners in the new collective bargaining agreement. In three seasons with Akron, Wallace has guided the RubberDucks to a 223-202 mark. Under the new deal, the soft cap is $195 million for 2017. It’s likely a net positive for the players, but it’s just another incentive for teams to stay below the luxury tax, which is rising at a much slower rate with a much stiffer penalty. Given the rising cost of player contracts, the union wanted that figure to rise. By the fifth year of the CBA, the threshold will increase to $210 million.

This new draft pick compensation system will not apply during the current free agent crop, but will begin next offseason.

If anything, this mostly helps the Royals in that they will be free to offer a qualifying offer to more players in the future without the risk of them possibly accepting it.

Teams losing top free agents still could get a draft pick or two in return, but that pick would no longer be in the first round. Also, if a player has previously gotten a qualifying offer, he can’t get another (for example, the Phillies can’t offer one to Jeremy Hellickson again next offseason). The ban does not apply to players who have at least one day of major league service time.

This will discomfort Rob Manfred, who was not a universally supported choice for commissioner, and also Tony Clark, not the overtly obvious heir to run the Players Association, and because both sides still have to ratify the agreement there may be saber rattling yet. The Athletics will also be phased out of revenue sharing in the coming years, as per this new CBA. The owners of larger market teams will point to that number as reason to keep their payrolls restrained.

The new agreement averts a potential lockout of the players that would have frozen baseball’s hot stove and pulled the plug on the major league portion of next week’s winter meetings. With that cleared, the fun can finally begin.