[majesty95]

This kind of revelation could not be put on hold. It could not be tabled until the off-season. It was going to be made public and the world would change because of it. Baseball had an opportunity to capitalize, and profit, from it. They had to act now.

Before going to the players, the owners had to agree on how to handle this revolutionary change. How many players could they bring back? How many should they? What will the effects on other players be? What’s most likely to get approved by the MLBPA?

The first step was figuring out the cost and technical limitations. The high-tech cylinder which could travel through time cost billions to perfect. It also cost millions to be put into action. However, the windfall from fan attendance, television viewership and sponsorships could be enormous. Safety, however, did not seem to be of primary importance.

After a week of intense negotiations, the owners decided on each team being able to bring back three players from their own team’s history. 90 players in all. There would be a draft for players and no player could be repeated on another team. Each team’s record over the past 10 seasons was used to determine “draft” order. The selection of players would not be like a typical draft, however. Each team would choose their three players before the next team selected. This would allow teams to have complete control over the three players they chose, but also give a slight advantage to the teams with the worse records.

The owners knew that the biggest contention the players would have is taking 90 spots away from existing players. So, they agreed to expand at the end of the 2019 or 2020 season depending on how quickly they could find and approve new owners. They would add two expansion teams bringing the league total to 32. That would only account for 50 of the 90 potential players losing a roster spot, though, and it would take 2-3 years to replace them.

The obvious solution was to expand rosters. However, some owners balked over the added salary expenses. With most owners, its all about money. However, they finally came to an agreement on expanding rosters from 25-27 players. There would now be 114 new roster spots opened when it was all said and done.

The league and owners were confident that they could get the players on board. However, the need to overwhelm the players so there could be no dissention was paramount. They continued to tweak and tinker and the game would forever change because of it.