The 2022 Baseball Season - Things to Come

Looking at the middle ground of the current proposals we may end up seeing these changes in the new CBA:
Minimum salary ~$700k
~$230M luxury tax threshold
~$50M bonus pool distributed among top 30 players in war
12 playoff teams

The bonus pool and salary increase addresses the issue of young player getting paid more. But the relatively small increase in luxury tax doesn’t seem like a meaningful increase in the % of revenue players get. And I haven’t seen anything that indicates they are going to address the issue of keeping players down for service time considerations.

 

Joe West is retiring

 

He should now un-retire, that way everyone recognizes his final terrible ump move.

Then he can yell at everyone about it, with a smirk on his face.

Then the Union puts him out to pasture (he will be vehemently convinced that it is the wrong pasture), never to be seen or heard from again.

 

Suicide, 47 years old. Say what you want about him but that's just awful for his family and friends.

 

Has it officially been ruled suicide?

 

RIP Jeremy. The last few years look like they were tough on him.

 

That's a crazy amount for a left fielder regardless of how well he hits.

 

He played zero games in LF last season.

 

That's the same amount as me.

 

Current prediction for new CBA:

Deal reached in early April. Extremely short ST of ~2 weeks. 135 game season for 2022 starting 5/1.

-Universal DH
-Minimum salary raised to $700k
-CBT threshold raised to $230M in 2022 escalating to $250M in 2026; increased tax rate and more draft pick penalties for going over
-No loss of draft pick for signing QO free agents QO still in place to determine if the team losing the FA gets a pick

-$75M bonus pool for pre-arb players who finish in top 100 in fwar

-Super Two cutoff moved to cover top 50% of 2+ service time players

-Teams with rookies who finish top 5 in major award voting receive a draft pick (feeble attempt to address service time manipulation that will not work)

-Bottom 5 teams in a draft lottery. No team can be in lottery 3 consecutive years. Teams in bottom 5 4+ consecutive years lose draft picks.

-$10M reduction in revenue sharing

-12 team playoff for 2022-2023, goes to 14 teams in 2024-2026

 

Not happy about expanded playoffs. The 162 game season separates the good/great from the mediocre. In baseball, more than any other sport, mediocre or even bad teams can have things go their way in a short series against the best teams.

 

I don’t mind expanding the playoffs but I do think it should be structured so that the top 4-6 teams have a big advantage over the rest of the field. Something like the division winners get a bye into the division series and the other teams do 1 game playoff then a 3 game series of those winners to see who gets to join them.

 

I would be okay with this. It's an extra series for the higher seeded teams that I would not be in favor of. I don't want our Astros winning 100 games, having the 1 or 2 seed, just to have to play a 3 game opening round series against an 84 win team.

 

Zero chance either side agrees to a 2 week ST. Simply doesn't work for pitchers

 

Two problems

1. Neither side cares nearly as much about fair competition as they do about the money that comes with expaned playoffs

2. I can't see them agreeing to any more 1 game playoffs simply because of #1, less playoff games = less money

I was happy to hear the players told the owners yesterday that any missed games this year means no expanded playoffs this year. That is the one issue the owners seem hell bent on implementing, so the players need to stick to their guns here