Major League owners and the Major League Baseball Players Associationformally ratified the new five-year Collective Bargaining Agreement on Wednesday, assuring that the sport's streak of labor peace will continue through the 2021 season.
"This agreement allows us to build on the positive momentum from last season and promote a generation of young players who represent the national pastime extraordinarily well," Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "We are looking forward to the many opportunities ahead to continue the game's growth."
• Details of MLB, MLBPA labor agreement
Added MLBPA executive director Tony Clark in a statement: "The players' involvement during negotiations was both essential and unprecedented, and [this] unanimous vote was the culmination of those efforts."
A tentative agreement had been reached on Nov. 30 -- hours before the expiration of the previous agreement. The new pact covers a wide variety of issues. Among the provisions:
• The compensation system for teams that lose a player to free agency have been revamped, and the competitive balance tax threshold has been raised. The regular season was lengthened by four days in an effort to allow players to be better rested.
• Home-field advantage in the World Series will now go to the team with the better regular-season record instead of being tied to the outcome of the All-Star Game. The 15-day disabled list has been replaced by a 10-day DL.
• The minimum salary has been raised, and tweaks were made to the Joint Drug Agreement.