On December 2nd, the owners chose to lock out the players until a new CBA was agreed upon. It’s been over three months without a shred of legitimate baseball news, but today, the wait is over. According to Jeff Passan, Major League Baseball and the MLBPA have reached a tentative agreement on a new CBA.
BREAKING: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal, sources tell ESPN. While it still needs to be ratified by both parties, that is expected to be a formality, and when it is:
Baseball is back.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 10, 2022
So now what?
In short, pandemonium. Free agency will open tonight, and we can expect big names to be flying off the shelves every few minutes. In a couple of weeks, the baseball world will look entirely different. The Braves should be one of the busier teams, as they didn’t do much before the lockout, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Freddie Freeman signed before midnight.
It won’t be long until they are playing either. According to Jon Heyman, the mandatory Spring Training date will be March 13th, just three days from now.
Mandatory spring reporting date: March 13 (assuming this gets done)
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 10, 2022
We can expect Spring Training games to take place soon after, and within a month, Major League Baseball’s Opening Day will arrive.
MLB proposed spring games to begin on or about March 17 and regular season Opening Day to be on or about April 5
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 10, 2022
It’s been a long grueling road to get this point, and honestly, I do believe it has done a substantial bit of damage to the game. However, it isn’t irreparable. The season will only begin a week late, no games will be missed, and at the end of the day, the product is in a much better place than it was. As brutal as these three-plus months have been, it just might be worth the wait.
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