CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Guardians are finally set to debut in April after Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players’ Association reached an accord Thursday on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Opening day across the league will take place April 7, with Cleveland set to start a four-game series on the road in Kansas City on April 8.
The 99-day lockout imposed by MLB owners forced the cancellation of the Guardians’ opening six-game homestand. Those games will be made up on off days and by extending the regular season to Oct. 5, meaning Cleveland’s home opener will take place April 15 against San Francisco.
Players association reps from each team and the MLBPA executive council voted 26-12 in favor of the deal, which includes significant increases in minimum salaries for players, expanded playoffs and rules enhancements.
Transactions, trades and free agent signings were set to begin Thursday night after owners voted 30-0 to ratify the pact. The mandatory spring training report date for players will be Sunday.
As the business of baseball reopens, Guardians executives face a monumental task in assembling the team’s 26-man roster. Cleveland has glaring needs in the outfield and bullpen that could be addressed immediately by trades or free agent signings.
The Guardians needs more offense, regardless of where it comes from, as well as a veteran arm in the bullpen after the departures of Bryan Shaw, Blake Parker and Nick Wittgren.
Cleveland played last season with a $50 million payroll, but that kind of money doesn’t buy a lot of high-priced veteran talent. The payroll is expected to increase a bit in 2022, but it’s not like they’re going to give a free agent such as shortstop Carlos Correa a 10-year, $350 million contract overnight.
Deal came together quickly after draft issue was tabled
MLB sent the players an offer Thursday and gave them until 3 p.m. to accept in order to play a full season. The union announced the player vote around 3:25 p.m. Owners planned to hold a ratification vote later in the day.
The agreement will allow training camps to open this week in Florida and Arizona, more than three weeks after the original Feb. 16 start date. Opening day is being planned a little more than a week behind the original date on March 31.
The deal will also set off a rapid-fire round of free agency. Correa, Freddie Freeman and Kris Bryant are among 138 big leaguers still without a team, including some who might benefit from the adoption of a universal designated hitter.
Among the key points of the agreement:
- It will expand the playoffs from 10 to 12 teams.
- It introduces incentives to limit so-called “tanking,” where teams gut their roster in an attempt to save salary and improve draft position.
- The minimum salary will rise from $570,500 to about $700,000.
- The luxury tax threshold will increase from $210 million to around $230 million this year. The tax penalizes teams that go over a certain total payroll and distributes that “tax” money to teams, especially in smaller markets, with smaller payrolls. The new number represents a slight loosening for the biggest spenders such as the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Red Sox.
- A new bonus pool was established for players not yet eligible for salary arbitration, a way to boost salaries for young stars.
Commissioner Rob Manfred had set a Tuesday deadline for a deal that would preserve a 162-game schedule along with full pay and service time required for players to reach free agency. Talks spilled past the deadline and Manfred announced more cancellations Wednesday, increasing the total to 184 of the 2,230 games.
After yet another snag, this time over management’s desire for an international amateur draft, the deal came together Thursday afternoon and capped nearly a year of talks that saw pitchers Max Scherzer and Andrew Miller take prominent roles as union spokesmen.
Players had fumed for years about the deal that expired Dec. 1, which saw payrolls decline for 4% in 2021 compared to the last full season, back to their 2015 level. The union had an ambitious negotiating stance in talks that began last spring, asking for free-agency rights to increase with an age-based backstop and for an expansion of salary arbitration to its level from 1974-86.
In the late stages, the level and rates of the luxury tax, designed as a break on spending, became the key to a deal. Players think that too low a threshold and too high a rate acts tantamount to a salary cap, which the union fought off with a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95.
The agreement came after three days of shuttle negotiations between the MLB offices in midtown Manhattan and the players’ association headquarters, three blocks away.
Despite hundreds of hours of threats and counter-threats, the sides are set to avoid regular-season games being canceled by labor conflict for the first time since the 1994-95 strike. Games originally announced as canceled by Manfred were changed to postponed, and MLB will modify the original schedule.
The deal came at a cost, though, with years of public rancor again casting both owners and players as money obsessed. Spring training in Arizona and Florida was disrupted for the third straight year following two exhibition seasons altered by the coronavirus pandemic. Exhibition games had been scheduled to start Feb. 26.
Players will have about 28 days of training rather than the usual 42 for pitchers and catchers.
In some ways, the negotiations were similar to those in 1990, when a lockout started Feb. 15 and ended with a four-year deal announced 1:18 a.m. on March 19.
Guardians have challenges ahead
The Guardians have seven players on the 40-man roster who are out of options, meaning they can’t be sent to the minor leagues: LHP Logan Allen, LHP Anthony Gose, LHP Sam Hentges, 1B Bobby Bradley, INF Yu Chang, OF Oscar Mercado and OF Bradley Zimmer.
The odds of all seven making the opening day roster are long. If they don’t make it, they could be claimed on waivers.
After adding 11 minor-leaguers to the 40-man in November, the Guardians have six infielders on the roster who have yet to play an inning in the majors, and 12 of their rostered pitchers are starters. Adding a veteran reliever and moving a starting pitcher or two via trade could address both areas.
There is uncertainty on the infield everywhere besides third base. Andres Gimenez closed out the season at second after beginning as the opening day shortstop in 2021, but has not dazzled in his big-league opportunities.
At first, Bradley had an up-and-down season, leading to opportunities there for Chang. Cleveland could also use an established backup catcher behind Austin Hedges, but has Sandy Leon signed to a minor-league deal if no other option presents itself.
Josh Naylor and Zimmer got the most starts in right field last year. Naylor will likely not be ready to play after breaking his leg at Target Field last June 27. Both are eligible for arbitration after being tendered contracts in December.
Prospect Steven Kwan hit .328 (97-for-296) with 12 homers, 44 RBI and a .934 OPS at Class AA Akron and Class AAA Columbus last year and could get a chance in 2022. He played 45 games in center, 15 in left and 11 in right field. Richie Palacios hit .297 (106-for-357) with 33 doubles, seven homers, 48 RBI and a .874 OPS at Akron and Columbus. He played 68 games at second, 16 in center, six in left and three in right. He moved to the outfield in the Arizona Fall League.
George Valera, like Kwan and Palacios, is a left-handed hitter. He batted .260 (74-for-285) with 19 homers, 65 RBI and a .910 OPS at Class A Lake County and Akron. Valera played 48 games in right, 17 in left and 16 in center.
Nolan Jones, Cleveland’s second-round pick in 2016, could figure into the outfield mix depending on how he recovers from end-of-the-season surgery on his left ankle. Jones played mostly third base last year at Columbus, but did make 25 starts in right.
In the bullpen, the Guardians have a core of power arms in Emmanuel Clase, James Karinchak, Trevor Stephan, Sam Hentges, Anthony Gose and Nick Sandlin. Cody Morris, Konnor Pilkington and Tobias Myers, added to the roster in November, could offer some help, but what the Guardians really need is a veteran to guide the group.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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