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Baseball is Saved! The Diamondbacks' season is back on track after CBA Agreement

By Jake Oliver |
Opening Day Diamondbacks`
Opening Day Diamondbacks` / Christian Petersen/GettyImages
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Just when we thought it wasn't going to happen, the MLB pulled us back in whether we wanted it or not. We wanted it though. That's right folks! It turns out there's going to be a season after all. This past afternoon on Thursday the 10th of March, the MLB and MLBPA agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA. Why did they have to agree to a new one? Well, every 5 years, the two sides have to agree on a new set of rules to govern the baseball organization. Ever since 1995, there has been zero issues in regards to completing a CBA in time for the next regular season. Alas, that would not be the case this time.

See, the players were tired of the owners winning every CBA since 1995. In a lot of ways, the owners took advantage of an un-united players union. That would not be the case this time. Instead, the players would be more united than ever and seek to establish a major win for their side. Whether or not either side won in this agreement is beyond the scope of this article. However, the clear winners in this agreement are the fans, who pay their salaries, and the game of baseball. It's America's past-time. You can't tell the history of the U.S. without the game of baseball. Therefore, after multiple weeks of Spring Training were canceled and the first four series were cancelled, there began to be a wave of anger and fear that we might not even have a season, let alone a complete series. Turns out that those fears were for naught. We will have a season. Even better, we will have a complete full season!

What remains the same following the new CBA?

A lot is remaining the same. 26-man rosters are in effect. The games are still 9 innings. Manfred is sadly still the commissioner. Ken Kendrick still owns the Dbacks. Sadly. We will still have arbitration, 6-year service times before player control runs out, and a Rule-5 Draft. Pitchers must still face 3 batters or end an inning before being able to be removed. We will still have Spring Training. Additionally, the schedule will remain the same as it was before where we face mainly opposing teams in our division.

What is different in this CBA?

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Do you want to know what has changed? Oh, you do, well it's quite a bit. Let's start off with something easy and very divisive. That is the MLB will officially adopt a Universal DH. This means that the days of pitchers hitting in the MLB are over. The National League will no longer allow pitchers to hit. Some other changes to on-field play are that every double-header will now be two complete games of 9 innings. Plus, in extra innings, there won't be a runner on second to start the inning. One more big news item for future on-field play is this. The MLB and MLBPA will create a committee with an umpire on it as well to decide on changes to on-field play. Once the committee agrees on a change to play, they can let the MLBPA know that it will start a mere 45-days away. Basically, the MLB only has to let the players know it's going to be implementing changes to the play of baseball with a 45-day notice prior to the season. Poor MadBum though.

The biggest issue in this recent round of collective bargaining had to do with the collective bargaining tax or CBT. The CBT acts like a salary cap without a cap. Teams are free to pass through the salary "cap" line, but they must pay a tax in doing so. Last year, the tax line was at 210 million dollars. Only two teams passed that line, the Padres and Dodgers, while 5 others were within 3.4 million dollars of it. Well, that "cap" has risen 9+%. That's right. This upcoming season, the CBT line will be at 230 million dollars. That's going to really help the big-market teams, unfortunately. It will make life harder on teams like the Dbacks unless Ken Kendrick really opens up the purse strings. Over the 5-year period, the CBT will rise from 230 to 244. Of course, Steve Cohen the rich Mets owner who has gone on a spending spree has had a tax named after him. There are four levels to the tax. The first is at 20 million over the threshold. If you pass that, you will see your tax increase. The second is at 40 million over. Pass that and you get even higher tax penalties. If you pass the newly created third line which is 60 million over, you will suffer draft penalties and endure an 80% tax! That's why it's named the Steve Cohen tax since the Mets are already within a few million of being almost 60 million over the 230 tax-line. Imagine having an owner like that Dbacks fans.

A new rule named after a 2021 1st round pick Kumar Rocker
A new rule named after a 2021 1st round pick Kumar Rocker / Sean M. Haffey/GettyImages

What else has changed in the CBA?

To answer your question, there is now a rule named after a 2021 1st round draft pick Kumar Rocker. He was drafted by the Mets, but the Mets declined to offer him a contract after issues with his medical review. Due to this, there is now a rule in place to prevent it. If a prospect is among the top-300 and submits to a pre-draft physical, then a team that drafts them must be offered a contract that is at least 75% of their draft slot value. Basically, it's to ensure prospects are treated fairly so I like this rule.

Speaking of the draft, the MLB Draft will permanently be 20 rounds. There will be a draft lottery for the bottom 6 teams each year. This is to help prevent tanking. There are rules to it though. Last I heard, if you are a team that is a part of the revenue-sharing terms, then you may only stay in the lottery for a maximum of 2 years back-to-back. If you're in the lottery for a third straight year, you will find your first pick dropped to tenth overall. If you're a team that shares its revenue to the "poorer" teams like the Mets or Dodgers and found yourself in the lottery for two years in a row, you will have your pick dropped to tenth overall. Basically, big market clubs can only have one year in the lottery at a time while small-market clubs can only participate in the lottery two years in a row at a time. The bottom-18 teams will have a percentage out of 100% that goes into a lottery. Think of it like there are 100 ping pong balls and each team gets a certain amount of balls to try to get picked. Here's a tweet showing you the breakdowns.

You know how in the past you would guys get optioned 10 times a year sometimes? One day they are on the MLB team, one day they aren't and the next day they back up there? Well that's a thing of the past. In any single season, players can only be optioned to the minor leagues a maximum of 5 times. This is huge for player health, safety, and overall mental health. Now, a player doesn't have to worry about paying for two places to stay at the same time in two different cities. A player has some knowledge of his future and isn't forced to constantly bounce back around time zones on a whim's notice.

For this year only, due to time constraints, there will not be a Rule 5 Draft. Free Agency has already started and the Lockout has been lifted. There might be an International Draft in the future to prevent more corruption from being committed in the International Free Agency system. The two sides agreed that they have until July 25th to agree to the international draft and if that happens, the qualifying offer in free agency will go away. If it doesn't get agreed to, then the qualifying offer will remain.

Arbitration exchanging of numbers for contracts will happen on March 22nd. The Diamondbacks have multiple players that they have to do arbitration with. This is a 5-year CBA so in 2027, we will do this again, without a lockout I hope. Minimum Salaries for players with 0-3 years of service time will start at 700 thousand dollars this year and rise by twenty thousand dollars every year of the CBA ending at 780 thousand dollars in 2026. Due to the rise in rookie pay this year, the Dbacks are estimated to add 2.5 million dollars to the payroll this year.

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Could Kris Bryant be a future Dbacks player?
Could Kris Bryant be a future Dbacks player? / Harry How/GettyImages

More CBA Differences from last year!

To prevent service-time manipulations like when the Cubs kept Kris Bryant down for two weeks to keep him for the 7th year, there are new incentives in place. Players that finish 1st or 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting automatically get a full year of service time. Teams who bring up rookies that finish in the top-5 of CY Young or MVP voting get a draft pick reward. So, let's hope the Dbacks have some guys like maybe Alek Thomas or one of our rookie pitchers excel beyond belief this year! Hopefully Jordan Lawler in a few years.

Another change is there will be a bonus pool for pre-arbitration players. It will be given out based on WAR and awards won by those players. Here they are.

Unlike in years past when there were only 10 teams in the playoffs, this year and from now on there will be 12. Two extra playoff slots mean a better chance for the Dbacks to make the playoffs. Those famous tie-breaking game 163s are no longer due to the enlarged playoff field. Why? Well, that's because the One-Game Wild Card playoff is gone too. Replacing it is a 3-game series.

Who will play who? Well, like the NFL, the top 2 seeds in each league will get a bye. The #3 seed will play the #6 seed in a 3-game wild card series. Likewise for the #4 and 5 seeds. Then, the #1 seed will play the winner of the #4/5 series and the #2 seed will face the winner of the other series. It's an exciting format and will give us more playoff baseball which is amazing.

One last major change coming to the MLB will happen in 2023. That's when a new schedule will occur. Starting in 2023, the Diamondbacks will play every other team in the MLB. No longer will they face the Dodgers, Rockies, Giants, and Padres for half the season. Now, we will see them face the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and every other AL team every year! This will make the season more exciting and actually test the team's abilities. I like the change a lot and it's honestly about time.

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If I missed anything, I'm sure that I will write another article on it! Hope you enjoyed learning all about the new changes on the way for the MLB. Congrats on yet another MLB season! Only 28 more days until Opening Day! Woo-Hoo!

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