There Will Be Baseball

Hugh Atkins

The lockout is over, baseball is back, and Spring Training is underway. After 99 days of what seemed like Mr. Krabs and Scrooge McDuck calling one another greedy, the players association and the owners reached an agreement in time to play a 162-game schedule.

While most of the disagreement between the players and owners was over money, there were some changes that fans will notice on the field. Early on in the lockout, the players and owners agreed on the universal designated hitter, so the real game of baseball finally has gone the way of the ivory-billed woodpecker. On the positive side, extra innings no longer will begin with an automatic runner on second base. I’m glad baseball pulled the plug on this nonsense, but I think it’s funny how baseball embraces one rule that affects the basic strategy of every game, but apparently no longer could abide another rule that only occasionally came into play. In another return to normalcy, doubleheaders again will be two nine-inning games.

The postseason will expand to six team from each league, and the teams with the two best records will get a first-round bye. That means 40% (12) of the teams will make the playoffs. Maybe Major League Baseball also should have added a penalty box since they insist on being more like the National Hockey League where half the teams make the playoffs.

© THE TOPPS COMPANY, INC

Three things the new agreement does not include are larger bases, a ban on defensive shifts, and robot umpires to call balls and strikes. There is a logical belief that larger bases will result in fewer injuries, but are there really enough injuries occurring on the basepaths to merit such a radical change? If bigger bases mean fewer injuries, then wouldn’t even bigger bases mean even fewer injuries? Where does it end? More injuries occur due to pitchers throwing the ball 100 miles per hour than from collisions on the basepaths, but baseball never would propose a speed limit on pitchers as a means of reducing injuries. Therefore, to borrow a line from Jerry Seinfeld, I believe the argument for larger bases has a certain understated stupidity.

I don’t like defensive shifts, but what I like even less is watching professional hitters continue to pound the ball into the shift when half the field is wide open. The best way to end the shift is to make teams pay for playing their third baseman in short right field.

As far as the money goes, the minimum salary jumps from $570,500 last year to $700,000, which is the largest single-season increase in history. The minimum salary will increase $20K each season through 2026.

The threshold for the competitive balance (luxury) tax goes from $210MM last year to $230MM in 2022. Only a handful of teams will have to pay any penalty since the tax only kicks in when payrolls exceed the new limit by $60MM.

I found it interesting that the executive committee of the players association voted 8-0 against the new agreement while the team representatives voted 26-4 in favor of it. It could be that the executive committee is a bit out of touch with the rank and file union membership. I was glad to see that perhaps Scott Boras, who represents five members of the executive committee (Zack Britton, Gerrit Cole, James Paxton, Max Scherzer, and Marcus Semien), doesn’t wield as much influence over the game as he thought he did.

After all is said and done, Opening Day is set for April 7, and I guess that’s all that really matters.