Author: Spencer Reyes
THE MLB LOCKOUT IS OFFICIALLY OVER!
Sing your praises, thank your lucky stars, and pick up a ball and glove. The MLB 2022 season will not be canceled and will start very soon on April 7th. Spring Training started up on March 17th at the Florida and Arizona complexes, and there will be a full, 162 game schedule, with some other rules that have been put in place for 2022. The MLB and the Players Union have agreed to a 12-team postseason bracket including a 3-game series for the first round, which will change playoff baseball as we know it. This will replace the 10-team system that was originally in place with a one-game series for the first round.
There has also been an increase in the amount of money a team can spend, going from $210M to $230M and have promised to reach $244M by 2026. If a team spends a dollar over this threshold per year, they will be taxed by the league. The annual minimum salary has also increased from $563,000 to $700K and will continue to jump to $780K by 2026 as well.
As far as playing terms, both sides have agreed to a universal DH, meaning that no pitchers will be allowed to hit. They have also implemented a draft lottery for the six worst teams at the end of the year, creating a draft system like the NBA and NHL. Players also were happy once seeing that their player options increased by 2 per year. This is the number of times a player can be moved down from the MLB level to a minor league team each year.
The last two points agreed on have to do with player acquisitions. As soon as the newest CBA deal was reached on Thursday, the floodgates were open as trades and signings were now allowed to occur prior to the season starting. They also instituted a deadline on July 25th to reach a deal on the idea of a draft for the international baseball prospects. This idea is up in the air but was supposedly the last piece to this 3-month lockout saga, and both sides agreed to defer this side argument to start the 2022 season.
Mark your calendars for April 7th as the top baseball players in the world will finally have the chance to show their worth after an elongated stretch of inactivity.
PLAY BALL!
SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE
Comments