MLB and the MLBPA have announced the details in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The full list of changes can be found here, and we’ve discussed a few of those changes here and here. Let’s go over some of the more interesting new details that could impact the Pirates.
**The competitive balance portion of the draft is still sticking around for clubs in the bottom-10 markets or the bottom-10 in local revenue. There will be no more lottery system, but clubs will now receive selections after the first round or after the second round in alternating years. The pick orders will be based on a combination of winning percentage and local revenue.
**The international pools seem to be based on which competitive balance round a team is in. If a team picks in Competitive Balance round A, they have a $5.25 M pool. If a team picks in Competitive Balance round B, they receive $5.75 M. So if you get a higher pick, you get $500,000 less to spend on the international market that year. This would rotate every other year, along with the competitive balance pick position.
**Clubs are not allowed to exceed their international signing bonus pools. The pools will grow with industry revenue. The signings of $10,000 or less won’t count towards the pools. The bonus pools don’t count for foreign professionals who are at least 25 and who have played as a professional in a foreign league recognized by the Commissioner’s office for a minimum of six years.
**Clubs can also trade for up to 75% of their bonus pool in the next two periods, and 60% of their pool in following years. So the highest bonus pool a team could have would be just over $10 M.
**Any clubs who exceeded their pools in the last two signing periods still have their penalties enforced. There are also strict penalties if teams pull a Red Sox move and try to circumvent the bonus pool system.
**The time period for clubs to designate a player for assignment has been reduced from 10 to 7 days. This is good from a personal standpoint, because I’ve noticed I usually get the “What happened to Player X” question around 6-7 days after he was DFAd.
**Clubs can no longer recall a player from optional assignment prior to the expiration of his ten days if the player’s minor league season has concluded. This removes the loophole that the Pirates and other teams have used in the past, where they would option players to Bristol or some other level that ended on September 1st, then recall the player on September 2nd, despite being down for less than ten days.
