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Jeff Passan at ESPN:

More than 50% of minor league players have voted to support unionizing, paving the way for players to organize and join the Major League Baseball Players Association, the union announced Tuesday.

In a letter sent to MLB on Tuesday morning, the union said it asked for voluntary recognition from the league, in which MLB would acknowledge that a majority of minor league players are seeking to unionize and formally accept the MLBPA as their bargaining representative.

"Minor league players have made it unmistakably clear they want the MLBPA to represent them and are ready to begin collective bargaining in order to positively affect the upcoming season," MLBPA executive directory Tony Clark said in a statement.

If the league chooses not to recognize by a date specified in the letter, the MLBPA could hold a vote through the National Labor Relations Board in which more than 50% of eligible players would need to vote in favor of unionization.

Ten days after the MLBPA sent out union authorization cards to minor league players, the percentage returned far exceeded the threshold of 30% necessary for the next step in potential unionization. Minor league players have said higher wages and better working conditions are among their top priorities.

Hannah Keyser at Yahoo! News:

After all that, there will be a 2022 baseball season. And while some things will look different — more on that in a minute — the most important things will look the same. Three outs, 30 teams, one trophy, six months and — this is the big one — 162 games.

Nine days after commissioner Rob Manfred canceled opening day and over three months into an owner-implemented lockout, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association agreed to a new labor contract Thursday afternoon in New York City, ensuring a full season and averting the most catastrophic consequences. Call it the 11th hour or the bottom of the ninth, but after the union successfully called the league’s bluff in the face of several ultimatums, the pressure of an impending season finally forced a mutually tolerable compromise. Pending formal ratification by both sides, a frenetic close to the frozen free agency period and a condensed, concurrent spring training can now ensue. And on the other side of those: Opening day on April 7. The full 162-game slate will be made up with doubleheaders and days added on to the end of the season, the details of which are still to come.

The collective bargaining agreement that will govern owner and players relations for the next five years represents a concerted effort by the union to close some of the loopholes by which teams have suppressed salaries in recent years and wrest a greater portion of the growing economic pie for themselves. The union’s more radical goals targeting the reserve clause and revenue sharing eventually fell off the table as concessions to achieve gains in the form of higher minimum salaries, a new way of compensating high-performing younger players, a draft lottery, a policy to disincentivize service time manipulation, and a luxury tax they can live with.

The more visible changes were not what bogged down the bargaining for months at a time, but the baseball that returns to the field this summer will feature a universal designated hitter and a 12-team postseason. The new deal also paves the way for the league to implement more changes — including a pitch clock, bigger bases and a ban on certain defensive shifts — as soon as 2023.

On the core economic issues that made up the meat of the negotiations, here’s where the deal reportedly landed:

The minimum major-league salary will rise from $570,000 to $700,000, and escalate to $780,000 by the end of the deal.

The competitive balance tax threshold for team payrolls will start at $230 million in 2022 and rise to $244 million over the deal.

A $50,000 bonus pool will be distributed annually to the most productive players who haven’t reached arbitration.

A draft lottery — a la the NBA, but with only six picks involved — will be instituted as part of an effort to discourage tanking.

Teams will be eligible for draft pick incentives if they promote top prospects for opening day.

R.J. Anderson at CBS Sports (03.26.2021): 

Major League Baseball is scheduled to play its 2021 All-Star Game this summer at Truist Park, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Yet with less than a week to go until Opening Day, the MLB Players Association appears open to discussing whether or not the event should be relocated in response to recent legislative developments in the state.

MLB Players Association director Tony Clark told the Boston Globe that the union body is "very much aware" of the bill signed by Georgia governor Brian Kemp on Thursday that overhauled the state's election laws.

The bill includes "new restrictions on voting by mail and gives the legislature greater control over how elections are run," according to CBS News. It has been opposed by both Democrats and voting rights groups who believe the law will "disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color."

Clark told the Globe that "we have not had a conversation with the league on that issue" before adding that "if there is an opportunity to, we would look forward to having that conversation."

Should MLB relocate the event, it would mimic how the National Basketball Association moved its own All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina in 2017. The NBA did so in response to laws that discriminated against the LGBTQIA+ community. At the time, the NBA issued a statement that said, among other things: "While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2."