MLB, union find some resolution on international draft

On Wednesday, MLB canceled another week of games after the league and the Players Association were unable to agree to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). It pushed the San Francisco Giants potential opening day game all the way back to April 15 against the Cleveland Guardians, after originally being scheduled to begin action on March 31 against the San Diego Padres.

The main sticking point in negotiations seemed to be the idea of an international draft. The owners want to institute a 20-round international draft with a rotating schedule for who gets to pick in which slots, while the players wish to keep things as they are, with an open international signing period.

Thankfully the two sides continued negotiations after the cancellation of games, and appear to have reached some resolution on the issue. Not full resolution, but enough resolution to allow baseball to re-start should the other areas of the CBA be agreed on.

According to multiple reports, the two sides have agreed to continue negotiating the idea of an international draft until late July. If they agree to terms on a draft, then the league will drop qualifying offers and draft pick compensation. If they’re unable to agree to a draft, then the international signing period will remain, as will qualifying offers and draft pick compensation.

With the international draft handled for now, the two sides can get back to the more straightforward financial issues, where they’ve made a lot of improvement but are still decently far apart.

A new deal won’t feel close to being done until it is entirely done, but it’s not implausible to think that a new CBA could be agreed up by the end of the day.

Wouldn’t that be nice.