Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Pittsburgh's Pedro Press Release

Major League Baseball announced today that the dispute regarding the status of Pedro Alvarez of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Eric Hosmer of the Kansas City Royals has been resolved by agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association and that both players will be free to begin baseball activities immediately with their clubs.

The agreement with the MLBPA also clarifies how the August 15th deadline for signing selections in the First-Year Player Draft will be administered in future years. The agreement makes clear that deadline extensions can be made only by agreement between the Commissioner's Office and the MLBPA.

"From the beginning our primary concern was allowing Mr. Alvarez and Mr. Hosmer to begin their professional careers as quickly as possible and this settlement accomplishes that goal," said MLB Executive Vice President of Labor Relations Rob Manfred.

"We fully support and welcome the changes to the manner in which the August 15th deadline will be administered. We believe that the changes will result in a cleaner and more consistent application of the deadline which is in the best interests of both Clubs and players."


Yawn. Pedro gets a few more bucks if he's fast-tracked, a couple less if he takes a stutter step every here and there. The policy the MLB suits and MLBPA agreed on has been informally in place for years, and now it's set in stone.

And with a top five pick next year, we hope Scott Boras and Frank Coonelly can share the same sandbox if need be in the future. What a needless waste of time this whole thing has been.

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