Sawt Falasteen - Major League Baseball and players reach deal, set up April season start

Less than 24 hours after a last-ditch round of marathon negotiations ended in deadlock, the MLB and MLB Players Association settled on terms of a new collective bargaining agreement.

Team owners ratified the deal in a 30-0 vote on Thursday, ending their lockout after 99 days.

If players approve, an expected formality after union leaders and club representatives tentatively backed the deal, then the MLB campaign will begin on April 7.

"Our union endured the second-longest work stoppage in its history to achieve significant progress in key areas that will improve not just current players' rights and benefits but those of generations to come," MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said.

"Players remained engaged and unified from beginning to end and in the process reenergized our fraternity."

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said on Wednesday the new season would not start before April 14 -- two weeks after the original scheduled start.

"I'm genuinely thrilled to say Major League Baseball is back and we're going to play 162 games," Manfred said.

The season had been due to commence on March 31 but was delayed amid increasingly acrimonious wrangling between teams and players over the terms of a new contract.

Under the new agreement, a full 162-game season will be played with the lost early games being made up in doubleheaders during the season.

The new deal includes increased minimum salaries, a pre-arbitration bonus pool to reward top young players before they can negotiate new deals and a boost to the league's luxury tax thresholds.

Pre-season training camps open Friday with all players expected to report by Sunday with pre-season exhibition contests to begin next Thursday or Friday.

Designated hitters will replace batters in the National League as they have for many years in the American League.

An expanded playoff format will see 12 teams advance, six from each league, adding two clubs to the post-season championship chase. The two top division winners in each league would receive first-round byes.

A joint competition committee will be created to consider rule changes with players, team owners and umpires represented. Previously, MLB could impose rule changes with a year's notice.

An International Draft will replace the qualifying offer system for free agents, easing the way global talent enters MLB.

The resolution of the dispute came after the prior management-union deal expired in December.

A breakthrough had looked unlikely after a 16-hour round of talks which wrapped up in the early hours of Wednesday morning failed to end the deadlock.

Manfred later claimed teams had gone to "extraordinary lengths" to satisfy union demands.

H.Nasr--SF-PST