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MLB: The New CBA Shifts Focus on Signing Young Talent

By Keaton Moore

Dec 7, 2015; Nashville, TN, USA; MLB commissioner Rob Manfred answers question from the media after naming Cal Ripken Jr. (not pictured) Senior Advisor to the Commissioner on Youth Programs and Outreach during the MLB winter meetings at Gaylord Opryland Resort . Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 7, 2015; Nashville, TN, USA; MLB commissioner Rob Manfred answers question from the media after naming Cal Ripken Jr. (not pictured) Senior Advisor to the Commissioner on Youth Programs and Outreach during the MLB winter meetings at Gaylord Opryland Resort . Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports /
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With the new collective-bargaining agreement comes a shift in how teams shape their rosters. Due to the payroll changes, MLB teams need to rethink how they go about acquiring high-level talent.

Late on Nov. 30, Major League Baseball and the MLB Player’s Association announced the details of their renewed collective-bargaining agreement. The new CBA penned a small increase in the luxury-tax threshold that forces teams to revaluate their long-term commitments. Instead, it turns their heads towards their annual payroll.

“The relatively small increases in the luxury-tax thresholds will leave teams scrambling to lower the average annual values of their long-term commitments. For luxury-tax purposes, payrolls are calculated by AAVs, not individual salaries.” (per foxsports.com)

As many fans sift through the financial terminology, this change centers around a team’s annual spending, rather than individual salaries. In a nutshell, the CBA gives each team a spending cap, which exceeded pegs them with an overage tax. Through 2021, not only will this threshold rise, but so will the penalty.

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Consequently, the payroll changes forces teams to spread the concentration of their contracts over longer spans of time. Due to this change, signing an established, big-name ballplayer on a short-lived contract will become much more expensive. In order to stay below the luxury-tax threshold, teams will turn to signing their young talent on longer contracts.

However, lengthening one’s commitment to a young ballplayer heightens the risk of potential failure. On one hand, some ballplayers give their franchises every reason to draft a long-term deal. For example, Kris Bryant has given the Chicago Cubs every reason to offer him a lengthy deal. He received the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in consecutive seasons leaving little room to doubt the future of his career. Furthermore, younger talent on a longer contract occupies considerably less space on a team’s payroll than a hefty one-year contract.

Yet, there is no telling how a ballplayer’s career will pan out. While an impressive season could earn a ballplayer a longer contract, team’s run the risk of their fall from greatness.

Change is in the Air

Nevertheless, changing the way team’s approach their payroll could begin to reshape the image of baseball. For starters, it gives smaller-market teams a chance to financially compete against the game’s more profitable teams. It levels the playing field by holding teams without financial boundaries to new CBA restrictions.

Next: Chicago Cubs History: Ron Santo First to Invoke 10-5 Rule

Moreover, longer contracts bring familiar faces back to the ballpark. As the changes to the CBA increases the number of longer contracts, players spend more time with a single team. Now fans can cheer on their team’s superstars, without the fear of seeing them in a different uniform next season.

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