Photo: Doug Gray
Doug Gray 66
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN there has been a tentative agreement between the players and the owners. And baseball is back.
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
There’s a lot of stuff that goes into a collective bargaining agreement. We probably won’t know all of the details for a while. And at least for right now, in this moment, 99% of people don’t care about any of them. What matters is that baseball is back and at least for the next five years there won’t be any stoppages for reasons revolving around labor.
So what does an agreement being reached mean for getting back to actual baseball things? Well, assuming that the tentative agreement becomes a fully signed on the dotted line agreement, free agency may actually begin again tonight. That also opens up the ability for teams to make trades for players who are on the 40-man roster.
Major League Baseball’s spring training will begin on Sunday March 13th.
Opening Day will now take place on April 7th according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. For the Cincinnati Reds that means they will begin their season on the road against the Atlanta Braves. The home opener will be on Tuesday April 12th against the Cleveland Guardians.
Not having the season begin in Cincinnati doesn’t feel right. But the last time the Reds started the season on the road was in 1990 and some good things happened that season for the Redlegs. We aren’t saying you need to be superstitious, but you should be at least a little stitious.
Some of what we know
As noted above, we won’t know all of the inner-workings of the new CBA for a while. But we do know some of the things that were included.
- Increased minimum salaries
- Higher luxury tax threshold
- Designated hitter added to the National League
- A draft lottery
- 12 teams in the postseason
- A limit on the number of times a player can be optioned in 1 season
The two sides also agreed that they would continue to discuss an international draft. There is a deadline of July 25th to come to an agreement on that. If there can be no deal agreed upon the rules around the signing of international players will remain as they are currently.
66 Responses
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LDS So, who will be the first Red salary dumped for a nobody?
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Jimbo44CN Gee, what optomism LDS.
I am just so glad to see baseball again. Great News!-
LDS Hey, baseball is back but Bob is still Bob.
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doofus Cincinnati is a major league town, with a major league stadium, with talented major league ballplayers and major league fans. However, they are stuck with little league owners.
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old-school Great news.
Will be interesting to get updates on players health, plans for SP rotation/Sonny Gray staying? and outfield acquisitions and backup catcher and bullpen pieces over the next 1-2 weeks.This will be the craziest ST ever.
You got your work cut out for you Doug.-
Alan Horn Agree. The Reds need all you mentioned.
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Tom Mitsoff All of these players are still unsigned … it’s going to be a wild next few days and weeks!
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Mark Moore An absolute feeding and trade frenzy!!
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Alan Horn But will the Reds do anything production? That is the question.
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Optimist If he is willing to platoon and decrease PA totals, sign McCutchen. Still all-star level production vs. LHP. Still durable and useful and the platoon/position flexibility they need. Should be affordable. IIRC he and Joey get along very well.
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SultanofSwaff Woohoo!
Gonna be some real march madness in the front offices. The only guy I’m listening on is Sonny Gray, and if we have to move him to free up money to give extensions to Mahle, Castillo, Winker, and TySteve I’m all for it.
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SultanofSwaff If Gray gets traded we’ll need some rotation insurance so the rookies don’t get overworked. Johnny Cueto would actually be a good fit.
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JayTheRed I would love to see Cueto back. I know he is not the pitcher he was before but honestly. It would be great for the fans and I always loved watching him pitch. I am all for it.
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SultanofSwaff We also need to offer Shogo back to the Nippon league. I’m comfortable with a Senzel/Freidl platoon, with Nick also getting some time at 3B so Geno can DH.
Ugh, right field is gonna be a black hole.
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SultanofSwaff We should probably get comfortable with a Moose/Geno DH platoon.
Sorry, I’ve had all this bottled up for 5 months!!!
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David I will throw a really goofy idea out there.
Move Winker to RF
And let Max Schrock learn left field. And the young guy, Alejo Lopez, gets to play there too (platoon!!!). Max is a good contact hitter, but his position is either 2nd or 3rd, so no room there.
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Bdh Did I miss something on Naquin?
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David I am going to say something stupid (again). I would bet Naquin plays a lot of centerfield in 2022.
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Mark Moore It will be interesting to see the terms and conditions, but if this really means we’ll have baseball starting in just over a month, then let the good times roll!!
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Rednat Doug, i rarely agree with about baseball topics but I am so happy for you today! thanks for all you do in keeping us informed! let the fun begin!
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Daytonnati I had myself convinced that I would no longer care one way or the other. A pox on both their houses.
But why am I so happy? 🙂
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Grand Salami Same. And you’ve poxed them over and again but you’ll be at their house at some
Point this season. I will too.
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Nate -Additionally, player uniforms will feature advertising for the first time, with patches on jerseys and decals on batting helmets.
I guess they liked the little league look so much they had to find a way to keep it.
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MK This Nike swooshes and Majestic triangles have been advertising for many years.
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Mark The transaction wire in MLB will be nuts the 3 weeks! Sign Castellanos!!!!!
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Votto4life Someone will sign him that someone won’t be Bob Castellini.
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Redsvol I sincerely hope this included the ability to make changes to the game more rapidly. Ban the shift, speed up the game, limit the number of pitching changes.
I also hope we don’t see a bunch of pitcher injuries due to this rapid ramp up of only 20 days or so from start ofspring training to opening day. Play ball!
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doofus Uh, decrease the number of commercials.
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Magnum 44 I still don’t care I will watch and pay attention , but Bobby Banana needs to do something to get this fan base excited. It sucks, because they truly aren’t far away they just keep waving the white flag. One shot in the arm would help so much
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Votto4life Be careful what you ask for.. chances are the next few days are going to be pretty brutal for Reds fans.
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Jimbo44CN OK, so there may be some things come up we don’t like, but if this CBA was in place last year, we would have made the playoffs. Better chance this year than in many years past.
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Magnum 44 VOTTO…….Trust me I know it wouldn’t surprise me to see Castillo Gray Mahle maybe 2 of them moved by Sunday…….#get the pitching…..then trade it away
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west larry Baseball is back! I haven’t been to spring training in three years. Looking forward to it this year. Let’s go reds. We have two additional spots in which we can make the playoffs. This should be a crazy couple of weeks for trades and free agent signings. If we trade Gray, I guess one of our rookie pitchers has to step up. Let’s get Solar.
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SOQ February seemed so much colder without seeing the phrase “Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training”
Still April 7 is like more like the old Opening Day date.
Can Findley Market muster up a parade?-
TR No parade on opening day this year, but probably one on April 12th. for the Reds first game against the renamed Cleveland Guardians.
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Grand Salami Fake team. Should be a sweep.
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Stock Why is a lockout better than a strike?
1. Four lockouts and zero games missed.
2. Four lockouts and zero post-seasons lost.
3. Five strikes and more than 1,700 games missed.
4. Five strikes and 1 post-season lost.-
Redsvol Hard to argue with those results Stock. There is obviously a reason why MLB goes with the lockout.
I just wish the whole league could get leadership on both sides to hammer out a true national media contract with all teams receiving the same amount and the players receiving a set percentage of that revenue – as in the NBA and NFL model. Both parties would benefit and it would create a more competitive league. Having to go thru this every 5 years is such a bad look for baseball. They spend too much energy arguing instead of working together to make the game more interesting to grow the fan base.-
BK +1,000,000
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Alex Thank God our lords of industry and inheritance are there to strangle the game into submission. You wanna see owners cancel seasons? Propose a 50/50 revenue split like those leagues you mentioned have ???.
At least we can now get back to the daily news of big Bob gutting the team to save money.
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Steve Schoenbaechler The biggest thing I’m looking for, like what many said here, especially with the Reds, is what moves are made now. For, I “want to believe” that’s what the Reds were waiting for, before they made more moves.
I really didn’t have a problem with who they brought in when Moose and them. For, we were all thinking they would help. But, pretty much, none but Nick did, I believe.
But, it’s something like with the Bengals, I believe. They didn’t go out and get the “names”. They went out and got good players. I don’t want nor need the “name players”, though, sure, I would love to have them. I want players who are going to contribute. Moose is a name player; he didn’t contribute much. Geno had a name; hasn’t done much for several seasons now. Names don’t mean much if they can’t play any longer.
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Melvin Miley help? 🙂
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TR Impermanency is a fact of life.
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Old-school Trevor Bauer legal issues were dropped.
There are lots of articles suggesting the Dodgers should eat his $68 million remaining contract and release him. MLB hasn’t weighed in yet on possible suspension.
Interesting to see where Bauer pitches next.-
David Yeah, who wants to pick up that stick of dynamite.
I’ll go out on a limb and predict it’s the Red Sox.
Or maybe Toronto.Ooooh, scary, huh? 🙂
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Redsvol I actually think the Dodgers stick by him. If not, I don’t think the Yankees would have a problem selling it to their fan base. They are so starved for playoff success I think they could convince themselves that its his private life.
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MBS I didn’t follow it much, but if the case is dropped, why wouldn’t you want him? Guilty shouldn’t be the default public opinion. LA eat his contract, and let the Reds grab him.
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Bet on Red SO we have a DH, that Might actually help things with us
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Melvin Expanded active rosters early? If so that could make decisions about guys with no options left a little easier.
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CFD3000 #Play162!
Best news in way too long. Let’s get back to a scalding hot stove, spring training, and preparations for Opening Day. Go Reds!
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Brad Glad to get back to baseball. I am not real crazy about the patches and stickers on
uniforms and helmets. Are they going to look like NASCAR drivers? Going to see “Cincinnati Bell Reds” on the front of the uniforms? I hope not, but anything to make a buck I guess.-
Luke J Do you notice the patches on NBA uniforms? I know I barely do. It’s subtle and hardly noticeable. I’m not worried about it at all.
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Steven Duncan The players!The players!The players are who won this battle. Sorry but the MLBPA and the owners clearly showed they wanted to fight over some ticky tac stuff. The players stepped up and voted they wanted to play. If I’m the players I’m getting new leadership at the MLBPA level. You need guys in charge who are going to fight for you but also not let their hurt feelings get in the way of a good deal. At the end it seemed like the owners and MLBPA were a bunch of winy kids refusing to accept the others offer even though it was clear a deal had been struck. I give all the credit to the players for over riding MLBPA vote. Play Ball.
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BK Yes, give the players credit: the team player reps overrode the unanimous recommendation of the 8-player negotiating committee to accept the last offer. Both MLB and MLBPA need new leadership, while we didn’t lose games, both spent the last 3 months dragging MLB’s name through the mud.
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Grand Salami Yes, they must change the model before the next 5 year terms runs!
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BK In case you missed this, “The players’ board vote to accept a deal was 26-12. The executive subcommittee voted 8-0 against the deal, while 26 of 30 team reps voted in favor. Dissenting team reps were the Mets, Yankees, Astros and Cardinals.”
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Mark Moore Thanks for that, BK. Very interesting with the 8-0 against and then the majority going against what you might consider a “recommendation”.
In the end, we’ve got baseball coming!!
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David BK, thanks for this, and actually so many insightful comments and information you had on hand during this labor negotiation.
Thanks, and I am sure the other commenters really appreciate your contribution!!!! -
Tar Heel Red BK, the four teams that voted against the CBA (Mets, Yankees, Astros and Cardinals) were all teams that had a member of the executive subcommittee. That means the REST OF THE LEAGUE voted against them to approve the deal. Very telling in my eyes
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Klugo Yay. Recommence alignment.
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Allan Chandler Look at all of you.
Amid your giddiness, remember that the owners and players don’t care about you at all, and that given the chance to make an extra penny or two, they’d gladly screw fans over. Again.
And Bob C is going to tear apart this team because he’s “poor.”
Is the product going to get better? Will games be shorter? Will I be able to see more Reds games on TV? Will batters actually put the ball in play more? I’m thinking the answer to all three of these things is NO.
I’m sorry but I just cant get excited about this at all.
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old-school @ Doug, is there any chance Graham Ashcraft starts the season with the Reds as a surprise SP or multi-inning bullpen guy.
He’s dominated AA, has the innings mileage, and apparently has a dominant cutter. Mahle and castillo both bypassed AAA after dominating AA. He also has a head start on on spring training unlike some of the other potential #5 SP candidates and with a tight schedule and perhaps expanded rosters early, he seems like a surprise candidate to storm the Reds roster and get an early opportunity.
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Eddie How you guys feel about Jake Bauer firstbase man who can play outfield and dh. He has average of 217. We have trey wingenter idk how he was with Padres and got Andrew Knapp who be our backup catcher.
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Jimbo44CN What in the world for. We have guys that can spell Joey occasionally. We do not need another 217 hitter.
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jim m I say #Boycott Opening Day, if they continue to cry poverty and dump salarys and 4-5 years of sucking again!!! What was the point of the lockout if they are tanking and screwing the fans again????
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Joey Red Baseball is back but so is the losing. I won’t be going to Reds games just because baseball is back especially with a 100 mile drive and gas at over $4. It’s a shame that even when this organization does absolutely does nothing to improve the team on the field that fans meekly go along and say baseball is back. But if bobble heads satisfy your needs rather than wins and champions I guess you’re getting what you really want.
