Who won the MLB standoff?

As I tweeted yesterday afternoon about ESPN's first analysis piece, IMO Jeff Passan is wrong and (sad as I am to say it) Buster Olney and others are right. The owners won more. The players, other than perhaps top tier ones, lost, relatively speaking.

And, we fans who don't want a DH in the National League, don't want AL-time 5-hour games, and know that Commissioner Corleone Rob Manfred's pitch clock, IF implemented, will be toothless, lost. (Sidebar: No, Phat Albert Pujols really should not be that DH for the Cardinals. No, John Mozeliak likely will not spend what he should to get somebody to be that DH, like Kyle Schwarber or Anthony Rizzo, or even Kyle Seager And, I've even got a poll for that on Twitter.

#SpringTraining is here! Will Cardinals president John Mozeliak remain too cheap and not sign a real "masher" lefty bat like Kyle Schwarber or Anthony Rizzo to fill that universal DH spot? I say yes. Vote below. #STLFly #STLCards https://t.co/gdgYoTQqG9

— TheRealSocraticGadfly: Friends Crushes Xi Jinping (@real_gadfly) March 10, 2022

First, not having a salary floor for "small-market" teams (Tampa-St. Petersburg is as big as St. Louis, as I noted in a blog post calling bullshit on many Rays excuses, and Miami is as big as Atlanta, so it's probably just that South Florida ain't MLB territory — and yes, Tampa is South Florida by latitude) is a loss for players. That's especially without a significant competitive balance tax for not hitting that floor, like losing revenue sharing $$, which could maybe be added to that pre-arbitration pool. And, players never brought that up, AFAIK, and also never brought it up in the previous contract negotiations several years ago. Jesse Rogers is right on that one.

Second, players (and traditionalist fans) lost with adding two more teams to the playoffs. Baseball's attraction was, for a long time, precisely that it was NOT the NBA or NFL.

This won't prevent tanking, first of all. Teams can just pretend to be in the hunt a little longer. A draft lottery, being from a smaller pool than the NBA draft lottery, won't put a major dent in tanking, either.

And, with not only "pitchers and catchers" but everybody being able to report to spring training voluntarily tomorrow, with mandatory on March 13, questions arise.

Can Shohei Ohtani actually prove me wrong and show that comparing him to Babe Ruth is not all hype? That ignores that Walter Johnson is being left out of the conversation.

Can the Cardinals, without Phat Albert, but just maybe with a Schwarber and definitely with a Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina in their [really, will this be it] final seasons, not only win a diminished playoff spot but the NL Central title? One betting house has the Cardinals behind the Brew Crew on NL Central World Series odds.

Can Mike Trout actually appear in the postseason with 12 teams qualifying? Per a wisecrack on Twitter, can Trout make his personality more exciting than meat loaf to help MLB market itself? Is it too late?

With the National League now having the DH, will an NL team with deep enough pockets (Giants, Dodgers out on the West Coast? Padres?) make Angels owner Arte Moreno an offer to take Ohtani off his hands?) And, because I like polls:

Now that we have a universal DH for both National and American League teams, will some NL team make Angels owner Arte Moreno an offer to take Shohei Ohtani off his hands? #Ohtani #SpringTraining #DH https://t.co/GlQM9W7Zib

— TheRealSocraticGadfly: Friends Crushes Xi Jinping (@real_gadfly) March 11, 2022

Will any team, not just the Cardinals, offer Phat Albert an actual contract and not just an invite to spring training? If so, will any of the offers be for more than the MLB minimum? If Pujols gets just an "invite," will he take it? If he gets a contract that's just the MLB min, will he sign it?

Per a question in a comment on a previous post of mine by Dave, on the possibility of early season injuries with shortened spring training? It appears that expanded early-season rosters will be allowed.

Will my interest in the season wane even more than my diminishing interest of past years?

All these questions and more await answers.