5:28pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports (on Twitter) that the owners unanimously voted to ratify the new CBA. After 99 days, the lockout and accompanying transactions freeze have officially been lifted.
3:47pm: MLB owners are expected to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement at 6:00pm eastern/5:00pm central time tonight, according to Andy Martino of SNY. Transactions are set to unfreeze immediately thereafter, meaning teams will again be able to sign free agents and make trades. Upon locking out the players on December 2, MLB also instituted a transaction freeze, which ended up lasting 99 excruciating days.
We’re expecting an unprecedented level of MLB hot stove action crammed into a 28-day period, with Opening Day set for April 7. Hundreds of free agents are still without jobs, including 20 of MLBTR’s top 50 of the offseason. Click here to review the best remaining free agents, led by Carlos Correa, Freddie Freeman, Kris Bryant, Trevor Story, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, Carlos Rodon, Michael Conforto, and Seiya Suzuki. Check out the full free agent list here. To review which free agents signed prior to the lockout, click here. My ballpark estimate is that around 60 free agents will sign MLB deals between now and Opening Day. Old qualifying offer rules remain in place for this group of free agents, meaning that if new teams sign Correa, Freeman, Story, Castellanos, and Conforto, they’ll be subject to draft pick forfeiture.
Several factors will affect exactly how aggressive teams are in pursuing free agents. One is how many executives bent the rules and communicated with agents during the lockout, potentially laying groundwork for instant agreements.
Another is the new competitive balance tax thresholds. The base tax threshold will rise from $210MM in 2021 to $230MM this year, a 9.5% increase. By 2026, the base tax threshold will reach $244MM. There are three additional tax tiers beyond the base threshold at $20MM increments, the last of which is a new addition with this CBA. In 2021, only the Dodgers and Padres exceeded the base tax threshold, but five other teams came within $3.4MM of it. The teams that prefer to treat the base tax threshold as a soft salary cap now have an additional $20MM to play with in 2022.
It’s also worth considering the new anti-tanking measures agreed to by MLB and the players. They’ll be instituting a draft lottery for the first six picks, and also penalties for landing near the bottom of the standings multiple years in a row (we’ll explore that fully later). In theory, rebuilding clubs could become a little more active in the market.
An additional major CBA change that may affect free agency is the move from 10 to 12-team playoffs. The bar for entry into the playoffs has been lowered. That could push a fringe contender to acquire players. On the flip side, a team projecting itself for 90+ wins may feel certain additions are now unnecessary with fewer wins required to make the playoffs.
The universal DH is also part of the mix, with bat-first free agents like Nick Castellanos, Nelson Cruz, and Jorge Soler now becoming more palatable for National League teams.
Trading was minimal prior to the lockout, so expect a burst of activity in that area as well. MLBTR covered the 14 likeliest trade candidates, impact players with a chance to move, and 27 more regulars with a plausible chance of being traded. The Athletics, Reds, and Mets figure to be in the thick of many trade discussions. Again, it’s possible executives were conducting covert trade talks during the lockout, but we don’t know for sure. What we do know: we’re excited to switch from lockout coverage to free agency and trades. Thanks for hanging in there with us.
MLB players’ board, voted in favor of the proposal, 26–12.
How many owners will vote for or against the latest deal?
Enough of them.
First MLBTR said it would be ratified and free agency would start immediately after “6pm.” Then they said “6:30pm.” Now they are doubling back and saying “6:00pm.” Which is it? Why do they have to keep changing the title of this article? For the record, it is now 6:21 pm and no deals have been announced. Maybe the switch to 6:30 was the more accurate time even though they moved off it? I’ve never seen the title of an article be changed three times over a few minutes like that. I wonder what the reason for it was.
Probably a huge rush of information to digest all at once, from multiple sources. It’s all good.
Free agency opens at 7pm eastern
More interesting to me are the players who voted against.. Curious that of the 12 votes against, 8 were unanimous nos from the executive subcommittee. Sort of suggests that they lost the mandate of the constituency they represent – fellow players – when you realize that the vote was really 26-4 amongst the player reps and 0-8 from the subcommittee.
Seems to me that it was the rich players from rich teams leading the charge against. Cole, Britton and the Yankees player rep were nos, Scherzer, Lindor, and the mets player rep were nos, Semien was a no, etc.
That’s a great point. 13 out of every 15 player reps disagreed with guys like Scherzer, Lindor, Cole, Semien and Britton. They completely disagreed on top of that since zero executive members supported it. It seems the super rich elite players have lost the vast majority of support from the average major leaguer. That’s pretty bad when over 86% of the people you are supposed to represent disagree with every single one of you. It looks like the guys who aren’t the Max Scherzer’s of the world are who got this deal done. It seems odd because the super rich players said they were doing this for the lower income players but the results imply they all failed to relate to them and their goals.
Where’s consideration for the fans in all of this? I say there is none. Again it is all about the GREED. I say BOYCOTT MLB
Chill, no games will even end up being canceled except for a few spring training games
The rest of us are excited to have baseball
YouTube just told me the “no” votes were all Boras clients.
foppert, do you have a link?
It was on the Robbie Hyde “post lockout MLB free agency livestream”
Where is the information about which players voted yes and no?
@gbs42,
“The union voted to approve a new proposal by a 26-12 margin (a simple majority, or 20 votes, was all that was required for the new agreement to pass, but it’s notable that 8 members of executive subcommittee all voted no)”
CBS Sports: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-lockout-ends-as-mlbpa-owners-reach-cba-agreement-five-takeaways-with-baseball-set-to-return/live/amp/
Samer, thanks.
FWIW, I would love to know, just like all of you lol.
Well, it apparently gets worse: according to Heyman and Ken Rosenthal, the players’ union’s vote to accept MLB’s final offer was 26-12, with the 12 dissenting votes coming from the eight members of the executive subcommittees and reps from four teams: the Mets, Yankees, Astros, and Cardinals.
The two locals have four of the eight members of the two subcommittees: Max Scherzer is an Association Player rep and Francisco Lindor is an alternate, while Zack Britton is a Pension Committee rep and Gerrit Cole is an alternate.
Do the math, and you’ll find that means half of the 12 dissenting votes came from New York, which went 0-for-6.
The other four players on the committees include two players who were on the Astros (Jason Castro) or Cardinals (Andrew Miller) in 2021, as well as ex-Yankee James Paxton and Marcus Semien (Rangers).
Information I found online
It’s natural that the executive committee is more interested in winning the best deal in the negotiations at all costs, since that’s their job, while the players are more interested in playing since that’s their job. I wouldn’t call it a rejection of the executive committee at all, it’s a “thanks for your help but we want a full season.”
Well said, smuz.
Enough owners to approve it. They would not have presented the offer without enough owners saying ok to what was offered.
It’s the owners proposal that the players have accepted.
Update:
Owners unanimously voted to ratify the new CBA.
Shocked, expected one virtue-signaling holdout lol.
Shows how dishonestly calculated the no votes by a few owners on the earlier less generous proposals they made to the players were.
Who’s signing first boys?!
Non-Boras FAs. 😉
LFG!!!
So the last pitcher to ever bat was Max Fried, IIRC
Ohtani
Ohtani won’t ever bat again from the position of pitcher. Just DH. since he wasn’t in the world series he wasn’t the last pitcher to bat from the pitchers position on the lineup card
That cant be true. Why cant they just do what they did last year and choose not to use a DH that game and have the pitchers spot in the lineup?
Um No… The team loses the DH. There is no DH when a pitcher hits.
Actually he will because he can’t pitch and hit as a DH at the same time so on days that he pitches he will be listed as a pitcher in the lineup
He should be able to do both,
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Angels forfeited their DH slot when Ohtani pitches. If they feel confident he can go at least 6 innings, they could easily find bench players to pinch hit for relievers who have already completed their one inning of work. Unless the game goes extra innings, this would only require 2 bench players to pinch hit late in the game, making it very similar to the old NL strategy late in ballgames.
@jdgoat – they will still be able to do that. Teams will still be able to elect to forfeit the DH spot and have their pitchers hit.
I mean in a traditional, its the NL rule sense. Of course we’ll see an anomaly like Ohtani pitch and bat, and maybe even some good hitting pitchers get an AB here and here.
DeGrom can still pinch ht.
Pitchers batting as a pitcher. Fried, also, could serve as an effective pinch-hitter.
Yeah, that 72 OPS+ really jumps off the page last year. .372 SLG, .649 OPS. Nice!
huh?
the last one to hit a HR in the non DH age will be logan webb
We don’t know yet.
The 60s Dodgers used to bring in Pitcher Don Drysdale off the bench to pinch hit on occasion.
That may happen with Ohtani also. He can pinch hit even if he is not the DH.
DeGrom
So it begins….
Mlbtr will get carpal tunnel from all writing about the signings.
Voice dictation
*fact
I wonder who will be checking on Matt Olson or Matt Chapman once trades start up.
@taito2000- Hopefully not the Yankees.
@Captain Judge99 I remember so much conversation about Olson going there. No idea about Chapman, of course.
@taito2000- the Yankees have more interest in Olson then Chapman. They also have interest in one of the A’s starters: Bassit, Montas, or Manaea. Sean Murphy is a player that the Yankees like, but because they won’t trade Peraza I don’t think Olson will be traded to the Yankees. I think Olson will be traded to the Braves, if Freeman leaves Atlanta.
I’ll be checking it out
@CJ99 you dont want Olson?
@itsmeheyhi- I want Olson. I just don’t think it will happen because the Yankees won’t include Oswald Peraza in a package for him. I heard it’s between the Braves and the Yankees for Freddie Freeman, my guess he resigns with the Braves for 5 years, and Anthony Rizzo is resigned for 2 years, platooning with DJ LeMahieu at lst base.
CANCEL THE SEASON, OWNERS!
Lol
Like a Phoenix, you are going to need to renew yourself, sir.
Now we can get back to hating each other based on team affiliation instead of political ideology, or however people aligned themselves at each extreme during these disagreements.
Now, we can see if CashHal does anything and we can internalize our anger. Our bet has been officially renewed Ducky!
Baseball back, Clip.
Manfred lied man. He promised me a May start on the phone and now I’m not going to win the MLBTR pool. I demand a canceled season!
too little too late…
Thanks for hanging in there with us.
================================================
And thank you for providing coverage of current events, providing us with some fun player/former player chats, as well as taking a different approach to content to help pass the time.
Appreciate you MLBTR
Ditto…big time.
Yeah pros MLBTR for flowing content during a very difficult time. Granted I don’t think any of us will miss articles like , “Melky Cabrera once drank expired milk before a game in 2012”, but you guys never quit and kept publishing. Kudos.
Speaking of chats…
Better be a flood of deals announced right at 6pm or we riot. We’ve waited long enough!
Slow down, sparky. They will come. We all know this.
its a joke, lighten up
Again, AA get on a plane NOW and go get Freddie Freeman! Don’t come back until you do!
So is the lockout over? Can’t they retract and give those first 3 weeks back?
Great! Fire Manfred.
Not very original.
Original or not, it really can’t be said enough.
It sure can, and it has been. Way more than enough.
FIRE MANFRED!
Stop screaming, Karen.
You’re apparently a moron lover or Manfred’s wife. And BTW, 2020 called, they want their insult back!
The shoe obviously fits you all too well, princess 🙂
Wow, more clever insults. Probably took you all 15 minutes to come up with that. Oh the ramblings of insecure little minds!
FIRE MANFRED!
Thank you for no-longer screaming! 🙂
You’re welcome! See how politeness gets treated?
Thank you – and your point is well taken. I got a little too reactive, sorry!
A subject you’re all too familiar with…
Why would the owners (Manfred’s bosses) fire Manfred when he did his job (protect the owners’ interests) as well as he could?
Manfred handled the negotiations masterfully. Yes, the players got some nice gets, but everyone knew going in the players were coming in for a fight. The owners just got richer.
Keep in mind I’m not supportive of his practices, but he did the job he was hired to do. His contract will be renewed when it expires and the owners will give him a nice raise.
If the owners feel like they got taken to the woodshed on this CBA then they could elect to fire Manfred but I don’t see that happening. He’s created more revenue opportunities for the owners this year with the streaming services deals and the on-uniform advertising, not to mention the sports betting partners too. So long as he keeps growing top line revenues, Manfred isn’t going anywhere.
I think the owners are lighting cigars right now with $100 bills. Both sides seemed to do pretty well.
I hope all the MLBTR writers are on-call the next few days.
Haha I think it may be hours. Camp starts March 3rd
Rob Refsnyder sitting by phone.
He signed with Boston already I believe.
Excruciating doesn’t begin to describe it
The PARTY begins at 6pm!
630. Needed that extra half hour to run to the liquor store.
This is like a Super Bowl party Part 2. I’m on my way to get spicy chicken nachos now.
so at 6 is when we will see suzuki sign with the giants?
6:31. That extra minute so it doesn’t look suspicious…
Suzuki to the Red Sox!!! The extra $20M on the CBT puts Boston in a great spot to outbid others for Suzuki.
I don’t care about the financial stuff they’re talking about but the rule changes they’re talking about implementing have turned me off to baseball entirely.
230 mill lol. The rich get richer.
MLB can now celebrate on the grave of it’s fanbase. Wine n dine with the empire in decline.
If ’94-’95 didn’t kill the sport this bump in the road won’t mean spit.
94-95 will be on display in the autopsy. This was a legit fight because there really is a question of the games standing in the sporting world. No one killed it over night…it’s just heading for the shed.
Will all you “MLB baseball is dead, I’ll never watch it again” folks get a life. Join a knitting club or something. Leave MLBTR to those of us who love the game.
P.S. No disrespect to knitting intended.
Nah. I do respect you not disrespecting knitting however.
It seems MLBTR might have an issue with your statement.
It’s OK to disrespect knit-wits. Now, where did I put those mittens…?
Bloody hell, man. Let it go. There’s been enough angst on here to last an online lifetime. Let’s take 5 minutes to hold hands, stand in a circle around an open fire and sing Kumbaya.
Kevin Johnson you can go stick it. You take your time to respond how you like. You don’t know what anyone else but yourself has invested in the game. Making some comments here and there doesn’t mean someone doesn’t have a life. Making statements is a legit thing to do. I’ve made one or two and that’s all I’m going to say on it. Got a life brother. Hope you got one too.
Crochet all the way, baby.
Nah dog, it’s cross stitch for the cool kids.
Sid: We cool kids call that “crisscross stitch.” You have to be jumped in to the group though, and you get hit pretty hard with pre-knitted blankets and such.
Already pushed back to 530 lol
The Draft at site of NHL of one so GM’s on the floor talking Trades,in the Offseason or at All-Star Break and be called World Draft.
16 reams In Playoffs like NBA/NHL or 3 Leagues,
Correa going to LAD with Turner getting traded to Yanks.. calling it.
I could be very happy with that! From your mouth to God’s ear!
Yankees could use a guy exactly like Turner.
@angt222- yanks don’t have interest in Turner or Chapman for 3rd base, they are happy with Urshela and DJ playing there.
All I can say is WOOHOO!
Thanks to Tim and his team for all the great reporting on these negotiations. The analysis and the deep-dives into the finer points were terrific. Made it all a little easier to take.
The hot stove is about to be cookin!
I want a free-agent signing at 6:01 PM ET.
I’m sure all the agents and players respected the freeze and that all the deals announced in the next 24 hours were reached after 3 PM today.
As long as it passes, it’s not terribly relevant who votes against it, either players or owners, unless the dissatisfied owners decide to make a move on Manfred. Secretly, I suspect most owners are going to be just fine with this. Teams that rely on ML minimum talent post will absorb the hit by just replacing that 12th vet with another MLB minimum player. And the $85million from the playoffs paid, with room to spare, the new bonus pool. And, no one is forcing any grumpy owner to spend on his team.
MLB owners have canned commissioners for less. In fact, currently that would be a great PR move. Players and fans openly revile him.
Anyone else going to be glued to their screens tonight waiting for the bevy of completed transactions?
T minus 10 minutes…waiting
I’m not…. Kind of. Well, yeah, I’ll check a little. Every few minutes. Okay, I’ll leave the screen open & refresh every few seconds.
Well, I have to admit, that was anticlimactic. That’s ok, still expecting a very busy next week.
Thank f&ck that’s over. So much not to like about how that went down.
Right. Moving forward…..time to start defending Farhan for not spending $230m.
OH MY GOD !!! Let free agency begin !!!!
TIME FOR A MLBTR LIVE CHAT LETS GOOOO
Inflation is gonna hurt all major sports in cluding MLB. A blessing disguise
GET A LIVE CHAT GOIN BOIIIIIS
Okay, no more purple drank for you.
IM STILL THIRSTY
Let the games begin! Will be interesting to see if Cohen continues to add more salary to the Mets given the 4th level of CBT penalties now in place.
It will probably incentivize him to spend more as an FU gesture to it being added. I’m curious to hear what he has to say about the new CBA.
I appreciate all the great articles at MLBTR during the lockout. Well done. You’ll all be busy coming up. Keep up the great work.
Really no one is talking about universal DH and limited shift in 2023?
Universal DH was so anticipated for so long it’s not really a thing, but the shifts? Yeah, that’s not only a controversial topic in terms of baseball purists / strategy v game activity / new-fan attraction, but it’s going to have real effects on the outcomes of games & players.
10 minutes in and not a single transaction?! Not what I anticipated
PREDICTIONS…
Freeman to Angels (hope he stays with ATL)
Correa to Tigers
Story to Yankees
Kershaw to Rangers
Bryant to Red Sox
You have bad predictions
My Mets predictions are usually accurate. They always underachieve.
Tigers already got Baez…
Correa – Phillies
Story – Angels
Kershaw – Rangers
Bryant – Mariners?
Correa to Angels. Someone in his family was wearing Angels swag in their Xmas pic.
Time to bring back player pics to teams’ official sites.
Finally!!! Now let’s go get Correa! Lol Go Cubs baby!!!
Cubs over Athletics in 2028
Owners unanimously vote “yes” and players voted 26-12! Looks like we know which side was excited to get that vote done and make their money!!!! Well played owners. Well played.
What does a balanced schedule mean, Commission said we would have balanced schedule?
I didn’t hear what he said, but I’m guessing he means having teams play each other the same number of times. Right now, teams in the same division play each other 19 times a year. If the playoffs are win based, teams should be playing balanced schedules as some divisions are much more difficult competitively than others.
I’m curious how to balance a schedule with interleave rival play.
It means that the magnets are equal weight on both sides so it will stay evenly balanced on your refrigerator.
Balanced scheduled means you play team the same number of times regardless of division. I don’t think baseball is going to have a balanced schedule.
And in baseball, since when you play a team is as important as the team you play, having a balanced schedule is a myth.
Balanced just means Balanced. Teams in same division can play same schedule essentially. Gotta toss interleave play….or drop division format. Add a couple teams.
I envision 4 8 team leagues coming
Players voted no to robo-ump, I thought I was reading last year they were in favor. What happened to that???
The human ump is excellent leverage on how a game can play out. Guessing we see a REALLY tight zone thus season and tons of offense.
There are players on the rules committee, but there is nothing the Union can do to stop robo umps.
It’s a good idea to have players in the room. Playing the game is a lot different than watching the game.
You can’t adjust the robo ump for small-market-bias. Smaller markets deserves less strikeouts on offense because, ya know… stuff and stuff, parity, competitive balance, keywords and catchphrases and fairness.
7pm open for business! Flurry of moves coming with Spring Training reporting on Sunday.
Hallelujah. Let’s get a move on.
Now everyone plays chicken in announcing deals, trying to not make it obvious that GMs were calling agents these last 99 days.
Who breaks the seal?
Here’s my random guess at the first free agent signing…
Joc Pederson to Detroit
Totally surprised this happened so soon. They both met in the middle-ish which is what we knew all along. Let’s play ball. I need something to take my mind off the coming nuclear war…
What happened in FLA stays in FLA. Nobody ever speaks of this again!
Here comes hyper free agency!!!
I wouldn’t be surprised if we had some deals on Friday, but my guess is it will take a couple days to get rolling, but once it does, the floodgates will open.
If the Yankees fall flat & Cash doesn’t fill the needs adequately, I’m demanding they re-open negotiations & cancel the season.
Winners:
Large Market Teams
Superstar Players
Young Players
Losers:
Small/Mid Market Teams
Middle age players who aren’t Stars
MLBPA Executive Sub-Committee (Boras Clients)
MLB owners got what they really want, player union pulled a 500,000,000 lawsuit that owners were going to lose.
Doubt they would lose it
Theres been way too much ‘we’ve got to drive up salaries for future generations’ culture that developed among the players
What if a guy wants to sign for less somewhere where he prefers to play? Now he’s pressured by everyone he has to get the most money
I’m not against the idea, but it’s become so prevalent that now every player feels obligated to do it. He has no choice. Freddie Freeman has to sign for more money somewhere else
Part of the lockout was driven by this type of extreme culture that creeped in
Players will take small discounts for a city they like, particularly years before they reach free agency. But if one city is giving you a hundred million more on a long term contract than another, you can pretty much afford to redevelop the lesser city to be more to your liking.
Freeman isn’t that dead set on Atlanta, or he’d have signed an extension long ago.
MLB owners got what they really want, player union pulled a 500,000,000 lawsuit that owners were going to lose. Was that what all the owners really wanted.
The Mets usually finish in the 9 to 12 range in the draft order. So now that there’s a draft lottery they’ll finish 1-6 and then get a lower pick then they were supposed to in the old system
A source I have close to Jeff McNeil told me that the Mets told Mcneil in January to prepare for a trade to San Diego once the lockout ends
A source that I don’t really have says the Mets agreed to a trade and are just waiting to announce it
It’s been two hours, where are all the deals?
Come on first trade or signing! Hey Tim, thanks for keeping it interesting! I might’ve jumped in Galveston Bay if not for all the hard work your writers and all the writers at other outlets did to keep fans interest up. Really appreciate it!
I hope the gas companies have enough gas for the hot stove. Someone light the pilot light.
Three hours and counting…
I would be surprised if any players sign before the end of the weekend because then it would look like teams were in contact with players/agents during the lockout.
I’m sure though that there may be some deals that might have been close before the lockout officially froze transactions so we’ll see