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Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s OK, though. We’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network, as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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Negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement in MLB have been going well, from the sounds of it. Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association seem to agree, or at least found middle ground, on most major subjects, allowing the two to mostly tend to tweaking the existing CBA. That’s true except for one area: the international draft. While MLB is pushing for an international draft that would start in 2018, the MLBPA is "deeply skeptical" of a switch from an open international market to a more rigid draft.
That’s a surprise, given the union routinely gives away the rights of non-union members — like amateur players — if it helps their own cause. Maybe, though, many players remember how amazing those large international free agent contracts and bonuses were, and how much they improved their own lives, and they want others to have that chance. Or, MLB just isn’t giving the MLBPA enough in return to justify this massive switch, and they’re holding out for more. That’s the fun thing about closed-door negotiations between billionaires and millionaires: we don’t really know what their intentions are, but we sure can guess at them. In the case of the owners, we can guess with plenty of confidence that money is the key.
It sounds like owners and commissioner Rob Manfred are the only ones who want the draft. Executives would prefer the scouts who find the best talent and front offices that have the resources squirreled away be the ones to get it. What general managers and their associates want doesn’t matter to the players and owners, though, and you can look to the qualifying offer for evidence of that. A draft does feel inevitable, as Manfred has said in the past, but whatever it is that MLB is offering the MLBPA to make it happen is going to have to improve for that inevitability to go down sooner than later.
- Mark Melancon will probably be too expensive to fix the Tigers’ bullpen, as they’ve suddenly become cost-conscious.
- The Astros might have pulled off the best early move of the offseason by signing Josh Reddick.
- The Pirates and Mariners discussed an Andrew McCutchen trade, and while it didn’t happen, it’s starting to feel like Pittsburgh really is looking to move him.
- Bryce Harper presented an award at the American Music Awards, and looked pretty stylish doing it.
- The Yankees acquired two prospects for Brian McCann, and Eric Longenhagen has scouting reports on the pair.
- Mike Trout has always been the real MVP, he just happened to get recognized for it in 2016.
- David Ross was arguably the backup catcher of his generation, and now his career is over.
- I’ve been running SB Nation’s Red Sox site, Over the Monster, since early 2011. I’ll be saying farewell to my management duties there at the end of this month. Don’t worry, though, I’ll still be at SB Nation MLB and in your inbox each weekday morning.
- Even better, if you’re a Red Sox fan, you now have the chance to replace me at OTM.