The Collective Bargaining Agreement, abbreviated to “CBA”, is a written agreement between the MLB Players Union and Major League Baseball (each individual club ownership and the commissioner’s office) outlining the rules, regulations, and structure for the game of professional baseball.
The CBA dictates some issues such as salaries, revenue sharing, league scheduling and many other topics that pertain to the function and structure of Major League Baseball.
Current CBA
The most recent CBA was finalized and issued on March 10th, 2022 and will be in effect through December of 2026.
A few of the most notable rules/changes include: Increasing the minimum player salary to $700,000, new luxury tax thresholds, new playoff format, universal DH and adding a draft lottery.
History/Previous CBA’s
The first MLB CBA was instituted on February 21, 1968. The major provisions that came were raising the minimum player salary to $10,000 from $7,000, which had been the league minimum for over 20 years. In total there have been 13 MLB CBA’s ranging in length between one season and five seasons.
Some of the most notable pieces of legislation passed throughout the CBA renewable process include:
See below for in-depth summaries of each of the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreements prior to the current CBA:
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/league-info/cba-history/
https://tht.fangraphs.com/a-history-of-the-mlbpa-collective-bargaining-agreement-part-1/
https://tht.fangraphs.com/a-history-of-the-mlbpa-collective-bargaining-agreement-part-2/
https://tht.fangraphs.com/a-history-of-the-collective-bargaining-agreement-part-3/
Summary
The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) allows for the rules and regulations to be improved and updated every few years. It provides a great opportunity for players to improve their rights, the league to alter/update rules that will help improve the quality of the game, and allow for each of the two entities that create the MLB (owners and players) to air out grievances and move forward to improving the game.
Link to copy of Current MLB CBA: https://www.mlbplayers.com/cba
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