According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, MLB Owners and the MLB Players Association have agreed on a new collective-bargaining agreement that will run for five years.
This is great news as they were able to avoid any work stoppage, lockout or disruption of the Winter Meetings.
We’ll have all the details once the new CBA is posted.
#MoarTraids!
Original Report – Nov. 29
MLB Owners and the MLB Players Association continue to negotiate around the clock in Dallas, TX as the current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on Thursday, December 1.
However, if sufficient progress on the new CBA is not made in the next few days, MLB Owners will not send any of their front office contingencies to participate in the upcoming Baseball Winter Meetings, according to a report from Buster Olney of ESPN.com.
The MLB Winter Meetings are scheduled to begin on Dec. 5 in Washington D.C. and run through Dec. 8.
While the Players Union say they are willing to continue operating under the old agreement until a new one is worked out, Team Owners have already threatened a lockout which would not only shutdown the hot stove season, but potentially interrupt Spring Training and the start of the regular season as well.
The lag in trades and signings this offseason can be attributed to most teams being unwilling to vigorously attack their offseason goals until they know what the new Luxury Tax threshold will be.
Other things at stake are the possibility of an International Draft and eliminating the current Qualifying Offer System. But the biggest issue as always is dividing up the record revenues as the players want a bigger piece of that pie.
Meanwhile, until something can be worked out, the biggest free agents on the market may have to wait before they can start agreeing to their new multi-year deals. That includes Yoenis Cespedes who is expected to re-sign with the Mets once this CBA is finally worked out according to one person I spoke to with knowledge of the situation… If not sooner. (woo hoo!)
