Goldstein: Dissecting the service-time implications of the MLB, MLBPA agreement

From Craig Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus on March 27, 2020:

Early Wednesday morning both The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported on the status of the negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA. Both reports indicated the league and the union had reached an agreement on the way service time, noted by Rosenthal as “the basis of baseball’s pay structure,” would be addressed for upcoming free agents such as Mookie Betts and Trevor Bauer. This was later confirmed by Passan on Thursday night, when he reported that the league and the union had struck a full-fledged agreement regarding service time and other issues.

Per the reports, players such as Betts and Bauer will receive credit for accruing a full year of service time, and thus reach free agency, if they remain on the roster for 100 percent of the season, no matter how long or short the season ends up being. This is a logical landing spot given the issues at hand, but actually getting to logical landing spots is never a sure thing in negotiations between these two parties.

Read the full article here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/57956/dissecting-the-service-time-implications-of-the-mlb-mlbpa-agreement/



Originally published: March 27, 2020. Last Updated: March 27, 2020.