MLB, Players Union Nearing Agreement on Draft Order

The two sides are closing in on an agreement on the draft order and lottery talks as Monday’s deadline approaches.

For the first time, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association made some noticeable progress. According to multiple reports, they are nearing an agreement on the draft order/lottery, though it is not yet finalized.

On Friday MLB made a proposal on the draft, the players countered, and from there they went back and forth a few times, per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. At the moment, it’s unclear what the specific draft-lottery structure would look like upon agreement. Previously, the league has proposed a lottery for the first four picks; the union has asked for seven.

Also worth noting, Rob Manfred showed up! He hadn’t attended bargaining sessions in months, Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post reports, but he was there today. He met one on one with MLB union chief Tony Clark, though it’s unknown what they discussed.

The overall gap between the two sides remains wide—among the issues still on the table are the competitive balance tax, the pre-arbitration bonus pool and arbitration eligibility—but at least it appears they are close on something. At this point, that has to be considered a good thing. They are meeting again tomorrow.

There are just three days before Monday’s deadline. If they do not come to an agreement by then, MLB said, the season will be delayed and teams will not play a full 162-game schedule. Currently, Opening Day is slated for March 31.

After Friday’s meeting, MLB announced that it would be delaying spring training games until March 8 at the earliest. Spring training games were previously postponed until March 5.