Baseball's owners and players have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that should be announced early next week. This afternoon, we learned that teams won't have to sacrifice picks to sign top free agent relievers this offseason and the Elias rankings system will be no more starting next winter. We'll keep track the rest of the day's CBA news right here…
- The AP (via The Star Ledger) reports that the minimum salary will rise from $414K this year to $480K next year, and then to $500K in later years.
- Within the same article, the AP also reports that the Super Two cutoff will be increased to 22% of players with 2-3 years of service time. The previous cutoff had been 17%. An additional five or six players will be arbitration-eligible each year due to the change.
- The new CBA will include blood testing for human growth hormone, two people in baseball briefed on the matter told Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times. It appears that players who test positive will be served with a 50-game suspension, the same as the first-time penalty for a positive steroid test.
- ESPN's Buster Olney hears from a source that the rule forbidding teams in the same division from meeting in the LDS round of the playoffs will be eliminated (Twitter link).
LOL Phillies
I’m a Phillies fan, and we deserve that. Stupid, stupid move.
I actually like All of these things.
wow, that’s crazy if true
Im still wondering about Kelly Johnson.
Based on what has been said, it seems like Kelly Johnson would still qualify for Type A status this offseason as things don’t change until next offseason
No. It’s starting now. There are only a few Type A guys this offseason.
Let’s say the Jays offer arbitration to Kelly Johnson and he declines. The Tigers sign him, but don’t have to give up a draft pick. The Jays still get their compensation. That’s this year. Next year, a different system is in place and the Elias Rankings go away.
Yankees and Sox in the ALDS? S*** just got real.
a 5-game sox/yanks series will take about as long as a 7-game series for anybody else, so it makes some sense
I wish they would change some of the rules regarding mound visits (and long delays between innings to ice the visiting pitchers..as happens at Yankee stadium).
Let’s be honest. The MLB powers that be are just admitting a mistake. They assumed when this rule was put into place that the Sox/Yankees would have no problem steam-rolling the other AL teams en route to the ALCS. Clearly this has not been the case in a long time. The MLB is taking what they can get, which is better than getting nothing at all.
By a long time, do you mean like 3 years?
Thank God the Angels wont have to play the Red Sox every season they r in the playoffs…we r much better against the Yankees 🙂
Angels have to be in the playoffs first. And they haven’t been that well against the Yankees lately. Remember 2009?
to be fair, Angels could have won that series if Aybar didn’t drop a popup in game one and Fuentes didn’t give up that HR to AROD with 2 outs and an 0-2 count. Angels have always played Yankees well in the past for some reason. But i do agree they have to make it first. I think the Astros moving to the AL West and adding a wild card team helps them out in that regard.
Is the 12 million deal per year or 12 million total for the contract?
I assume per year, 12mm total is chump change for a top free agent.
Probally per year.
since they stated top free agents I would assume a year
This just helped KJ get a multi year deal from someone, Jays will still get the first rounder though, but theres not much quality out there for 2b. Its a tough postion for AA now, sign him to a 2- 3 year deal or let him go and get the first rounder and pick up some scraps untill hechavarria is ready.
Does this then take away Type B compensation for 2013?
It seems likely
I’ve suggested the same but many people are saying switch Esco over to 2B, so which is better? Esco would be the better hitter of the 2 I’m guessing and SS are usually lesser of the 2 in hitting.
and hech is the better defender
His D does look unreal in the minors, but that remains to be seen in the MLB. I just feel like Esco deserves to be the starting SS , but i dont see any other options right now, so that might be the only scenario in order to get them in the infield together.
Oh i wasnt assuming hech would play 2b , just stating until he gets here they kinda need to fill 2b with some other scraps( if they dont sign johnson to a multi year deal), IMO escobar and hech are both very very good at SS , it would be hard decision to move escobar to 2b but it might be the only option.
The Jays will get a supplementary round pick. KJ will be changed to a type B from what I’ve heard.
Really eh? That sucks for the Jays, although it makes signing him to a multi year deal not hurt quite as much since they arent getting the first rounder now anyways.
That’s what I heard, anyways.
HGH testing? Arod may as well quit, right now.
my prediction: there will be +++ suspensions in both AL and NL next year.
This is the only update about the CBA so far that I’ve truly liked. It’ll be nice to be able to get HGH out of the game and rule out those suspicions. And now the playoff seeding will actually be closer to, well, actual playoff seeding. At least something is good in this CBA.
Good riddance Elias Rankings, you made little sense anyway. I like the new deal.
Not sure why they want to eliminate the rule saying teams in the same division can’t meet in the LDS. If two teams are battling it out down to the wire to win the division (which, they hope, will happen more now that they’ve made the wild card experience more hellish), doesn’t it seem a little weird to possibly throw them back together for a 5 game playoff series immediately?
Finally, fans will be able to see more Yankees and Red Sox. The rivalry has regressed due to the fact that they have not met in meaningful games but some more energy will be inserted into the rivalry.
Like anyone really cares about that other than fans of those two teams.
Guess that countdown on the side is going to have to be changed now.
Maybe not. If the Elias rankings don’t go away til next year, the implication is that they’re still here for this year. The only change this winter is that many of the Type A’s will not require the team that signs them to give up a draft pick.
But then why would a team offer arb if they’re not going to receive compensation? That just seems like an unnecessary risk for a team like the Blue Jays to offer arb to Kelly Johnson..
They WILL receive compensation. The only change for this year is that some of the Type A free agents, including all the remaining relievers (plus at least Kelly Johnson, Carlos Beltran, and Ramon Hernandez) will not require their new clubs to give up draft picks. The former clubs still receive their picks. See Ken Rosenthal’s column at Fox.
Sucks for Blue Jays fans not having Bautista for 50 games next season . . .
::Runs and hides::
(while giggling)
Year one was steroids, year two was “white men stealing signs”, you cant go back to steroids for year three. I would go with Bautista is an alien from Uranus.
We are never going to see a rookie play on opening day ever again.
“…the Elias rankings system will be no more starting next winter.”
The implication is that the Elias system will be used this year, just that they’re eliminating compensation payment for clubs that sign about half of the Type A free agents. We still have Type B’s and still have the need to offer arbitration by Nov 23rd this year to get the comp picks. Then, next year, the system is replaced by another one…..
Couldn’t this just cause players to used HGH their whole careers now? I might be mistaken, but there isn’t an actual test, only an initial baseline test, and then they monitor your levels from there on out. Any odd fluctuation causes a red flag. Like I said, maybe they have something better that I’m not aware of right now.
A $66,000 raise in the minimum player salary?? What the hell is wrong with baseball? It’s already cost prohibitive for most people to go out to a ballgame, and this is going to do nothing but make that problem worse. The new minimum salary will pay $2962.96 per GAME. That is just obscene. I’m sorry, but the scrub sitting on the bench for a game doesn’t deserve more for that game than some people make in a month.
One question, if the team with the 16th pick signs one of these relievers, would the team that let him go get the 16th pick? 17th pick? or a Sandwhich pick?
Sounds to me like the compensation is the same for teams losing a Type A, unless something else has not been reported yet.
To quote Ken Rosenthal on Twitter “Teams that sign those relievers, and certain other Type As, will not
forfeit picks. Teams that lose those players will still get them.”
“the Elias rankings system will be no more starting next winter.”
And nothing of value was lost.
to MLBtraderumors editors,
Is there any chance of getting all of this CBA stuff together in one spot once there is an agreement signed?