Baseball is back!

After 99 days of a lockout on the players, the MLB owners and Players Association agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. So, after all that hand-wringing and soul-crushing shenanigans, what exactly happened? What’s different?

In a Twitter thread by Evan Drellich of The Athletic, he outlines the details of the new CBA agreement.

Bonus Pool
The players wanted a bonus pool of $100M. The compromise number of $50M is excellent. It’s a way for the impressive rookies and quality players to get a bit more money.

Minimum Salary
The minimum salary is now $700k and a sliding scale up for each season. When the lockout was going on, there was a narrative of millionaire baseball players against the billionaire owners, and that just wasn’t true. Most professional baseball players were not making a million dollars. With the minimum salary going up, it will help the most significant number of players.

Universal DH
I’ve been screaming about this for years. The National League was behind every other example of organized baseball in existence. This will make the game much better and make the World Series a more equitable set of games.

Schedule Changes
The regular season will be delayed, but only a tiny bit. More importantly, there will be a full slate of 162 games. To do that, it looks like there will be some scheduled doubleheaders during the season. Also, the doubleheaders will be nine-inning games. No more of this seven innings crap. Plus, no more stupid “ghost runners” on second to start extra innings.

Expanded Playoffs
The owners wanted expanded playoffs because that’s where a lot of money is made. The players used this as their primary bargaining chip. The owners wanted a 14-team playoff. The players proposed a 12-team playoff, and that’s the compromise. I hated the one-game Wild Card, and expanded teams mean Wild Card three-game series, which is much better.

On to free agency, spring training, and an actual regular season starting in about a month.