MLB and MLBPA agree to changes in free agency process

[Le Grande Orange]

Just happened to notice this story over at MLB's site earlier tonight. Both MLB and the players' union announced that they have agreed to some changes to the free agency process beginning with this coming off-season. The changes mainly involve the timing of when certain events must happen.

Below are the changes that have been made:

• Players with six years of Major League Service automatically become free agents after the conclusion of the World Series; players no longer have to elect free agency after the expiration of a 15-day period following the end of the World Series
• The period during which a free agent's original club has exclusive negotiating rights is shortened from fifteen days following the end of the World Series to just five days
• The contract tender deadline moves from Dec. 12th to Dec. 2nd
• The deadline for clubs to offer arbitration to their free agents in order to retain draft pick compensation moves from Dec. 1st to Nov. 23rd
• The deadline for players to accept such a salary arbitration offer moves from Dec. 7th to Nov. 30th

The MLB web site article about the changes can be found here. A Biz of Baseball web site article about the agreement can be read here.


Also, MLB has announced that game #3 of the World Series (scheduled for Sat. Oct. 30th) will start at 6:57 p.m. ET, the earliest starting time for a World Series game in nearly twenty-five years:

World Series schedule features earlier Game 3

[Jason]

I always thought the election of FA 15 days after the WS was kind of silly.

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

[list][*]Players with six years of Major League Service automatically become free agents after the conclusion of the World Series; players no longer have to elect free agency after the expiration of a 15-day period following the end of the World Series

I'm assuming that the caveat that they don't have a contract for the following season still applies!!!