Records to decide home-field edge in World Series
New labor deal pares minimum stay on DL from 15 days to 10
NEW YORK — The league that wins baseball’s All-Star Game no longer will get home-field advantage in the World Series, which instead will go to the pennant winner with the better regular-season record.
The change was part of Major League Baseball’s tentative new collective bargaining agreement and disclosed Thursday to the Associated Press by a person familiar with the deal.
In addition, players and management agreed the minimum stay on the disabled list will be reduced from 15 days to 10. The change will allow teams to make quicker decisions on whether to bring up a roster replacement rather than wait to see whether the injured player would be ready to return to action in less than two weeks.
Home-field advantage in the World Series generally rotated between the leagues through 2002. Baseball and Fox television promoted the “This Time It Counts” innovation after the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee ended in a 7-7, 11-inning tie when both teams ran out of pitchers.
What began as a twoyear experiment was extended. The American League won 11 of 14 All-Star Games played under the rule, and the AL representative won eight World Series in those years.
Under the new rule, a wild-card team that makes the World Series could have home-field advantage against a division winner.
As part of the changes for next year, players in the All-Star Game will have the incentive to play for a pool of money.
Among the biggest elements of the labor deal is the rising of the luxury tax threshold from $189 million to $195 million next year, $197 million in 2018, $206 million in 2019, $209 million in 2020 and $210 million in 2021.
The other key change involves the qualifying offers clubs can make to their former players after they become free agents. Under the new rules, a player can receive a qualifying offer only once in his career and will have 10 days to consider it instead of seven. A club signing a player who declined a qualifying offer would lose its thirdhighest amateur draft pick if it is a revenue-sharing receiver, its second- and fifth-highest picks (plus a loss of $1 million in its international draft pool) if it pays luxury tax for the just-ended season, and its second-highest pick (plus $500,000 in the international draft pool) if it is any other team. (Under the old rules, such a signing usually cost a team a firstround pick.)
A club losing a free agent who passed up a qualifying offer would receive an extra selection after the first round of the next draft if the player signed a contract for $50 million or more and after competitive balance round B if under $50 million. However, if that team pays luxury tax, the extra draft pick would drop to after the fourth round.
Among other newly disclosed details in the labor agreement:
• For a team $40 million or more in excess of the luxury tax threshold, its highest selection in the next amateur draft will drop 10 places starting in 2018.
• The regular season will expand from 183 days to 187 starting in 2018, creating four more scheduled off days. There are additional limitations on the start times of night games on getaway days.
•The minimum salary rises from $507,500 to $535,000 next year, $545,000 in 2018 and $555,000 in 2019, with costof-living increases the following two years.
• As part of the drug agreement, there will be increased testing, players will not be credited with major league service time during suspensions, and biomarker testing for HGH will begin next year.