Players have voted to accept Major League Baseball’s latest offer for a new labor deal, which puts an end to the 99-day lockout and salvaged a 162-game regular season.
The union’s executive board approved the agreement in a 26-12 vote, pending ratification by all players. The agreement will allow training camps to open this week in Florida and Arizona, more than 3 weeks after they were scheduled to on February 16th.
Opening day is being planned for April 7th, a little more than a week behind the original date on March 31st.
MLB sent the players an offer Thursday and gave them until 3pm to accept in order to play a full season.
The playoff will be expanded. The postseason will begin with 12 teams, starting this season. The owners wanted 14, which would have been four more than last season.
Reaching the postseason had been a difficult ticket to earn in baseball and sending more teams there lessens the importance of a team’s record in the regular season.
