Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement on Thursday, ending the league's owner-imposed lockout.
The union voted to approve a new proposal by a 26-12 margin (a simple majority, or 20 votes, was all that was required for the new agreement to pass, but it's notable that the eight members of the executive subcommittee all voted no). The owners ratified the new five-year CBA on Thursday night, voting 30-0 in favor. MLB's offseason business (trades and free agency) is expected soon. Players will report to spring training in the coming days, and MLB teams are set to play a full, 162-game season in 2022. Opening Day is April 7, per CBS Sports HQ's Jim Bowden.
The lockout came to an end in its 99th day. The owners first enacted the lockout on Dec. 2, when the previous CBA expired, marking MLB's first work stoppage since the 1994-95 players strike. Though the league characterized that act as a defensive mechanism it hoped would hasten negotiations, the owners then waited more than six weeks to make their first proposal. Talks finally heated up in the final week of February, when the two sides daily met in Florida. An agreement was reached Thursday after hours of negotiations this week in New York.
R J Anderson/CBS Sports