The world of a baseball player is defined by wins and losses. Thursday was defined in positive terms for Major League players. With the end of a collective-bargaining agreement dispute that pushed baseball one toenail away from falling into the abyss, the players gained the greatest increases they ever obtained in minimum salaries and the Competitive Balance Tax while also getting an unprecedented bonus pool for young players—without losing a paycheck.
If the lockout that owners imposed on Dec. 2 and ended Thursday was a fight over money in a $10 billion business, the players won. They recovered ground they lost in the prior CBA when they took their eye off economic issues and the owners let front offices McKinsey-fy the game to “commoditize” them, as union chief Tony Clark so expertly put the hacking and dulling of the game.
The owners also won—on their own terms. They traded economics for quality of the product. They won the right to start crafting a faster, more watchable, more modern game, gained an expanded postseason, and—this was job No. 1—avoided the first in-season work stoppage in 27 years.
