Jim Henneman: What You Need To Know (But Were Afraid To Ask) About Baseball’s New CBA

SARASOTA, Fla. — For those not overburdened by the seemingly never-ending labor discussions, what follows is all you need to know but were afraid to ask about baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement.

For some it no doubt qualifies as TMI and, spoiler alert, there’s both good and bad as far as the Orioles are concerned.

The biggest change, and one that has mostly flown under the radar, is the scheduling that takes place starting next season. It will be as balanced as it’s been since … well, since it was completely balanced when there were only 16 teams.

Starting next year members of the six divisions that make up MLB will face each other five fewer times, 14 opposed to 19, than in the past. That’s both good news and bad news for the Orioles, who will have 20 fewer games in what is currently the toughest division in baseball. That’s the good news. The bad news is they will also lose five of their most attractive dates against the Yankees and Red Sox.

The rotating interleague schedule is a thing of the past. The American and National League teams will face those in the other league three times every year on an alternate home-away basis, with the “rival” teams meeting four times each year. The complete breakdown: 56 games in your own division (4×14); 60 against the rest of the league (10×6), and 46 (3×14 and 1×4) interleague games.

Assuming the O’s are expected to challenge at least for wild-card spots, if not division titles, the new schedule is favorable to teams in the most difficult divisions.

Another overlooked factor of the new CBA is the elimination of all tiebreaker games. In order to not interfere with the best of the (also new) best-of-three wild-card series, any ties will be determined by mathematical means (think NFL here). Another cumbersome (and bound to be unpopular) feature with wild-card play is that all three games will be played at the site of the higher seed.

A rather complicated NBA-style lottery will be introduced for the 2023 draft, which at least at this point figures to hurt the Orioles, who will be trying to avoid a fourth straight (full year) 100-plus loss season. The 18 non-playoff teams will be in a lottery for the first six picks — with percentages of getting the top pick ranging from 16.5 percent for the three worst teams, to 7.5 percent for the sixth spot and 0.23 percent for the highest ranking non-playoff team.

The groundwork is in place for an international draft, which many feel has been long overdue because the international market has been rife with scandal, with a final decision due from the players by July 25. It is tied to the existing qualifying offer for potential free agents that will go away if the draft is formalized.

The increases for minimum salaries ($570,500 to $700,000 this year) and restrictions on the option rule (players can be sent out no more than five times in one option-eligible year). Bonus money for non-arbitration eligible players (hello, Cedric Mullins) has been fairly well documented, but perhaps overlooked is the fact that the basic three-year requirement is still intact.

As for arbitration-eligible players, there is one key change that may actually be a detriment. Contrary to a popular belief, arbitration has not produced a guaranteed contract in the past. A team could always buy out a player before the season with one month of pay (roughly 17 percent of the arbitration number). From now on, when these cases go to a hearing, with each side presenting a number (and the arbitrator picking one side on the other) that salary will become fully guaranteed.

It doesn’t figure this is going to enhance the arbitration process from the players’ standpoint, since clubs have already shown great reluctance to trust the process. All of which makes it a rather curious footnote to what had been contentious negotiations.

The bottom line is the players made some significant gains in the area of improving the financial status of players in their early years. One thing they can’t overcome (and haven’t been able to make many inroads with) is the perception of the average player earning a multi-million salary.

The actual average salary of $4.17 million is carried by those huge contracts, but the hard fact of the matter is there are more players making below the median salary of $1.1 million than those above the average. Those numbers have dropped about 5 percent during the last five years — a big concern for the players, but not an easy sell to the fans.

In between the good and bad of this latest deal, is the best news that it’ll be another five years before they deal with it again. The next time, for the first time since it all started in the 1970s, they’ll do it without me. The computer will have gone the way of the typewriter by then.

Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com

Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox