Notes - Play Ball, CBA Approved; Fletcher Claimed, Minors, NRI, Ex's On The Move

Peace in the valley - let's play ball:

Notes:

• The Pirates claimed LHP Aaron Fletcher, 26, off waivers from the Seattle Mariners to fill the 40-man roster; the Bucs were thin in lefty relievers. He's pitched in 10 MLB games in the past two seasons with an ERA of 12.38. The middle reliever has slashed 11-5-3/2.69 (3.47 ERA in AAA) with 163 strikeouts in 93 appearances (153-2/3 IP) during his minor league career.
• Baseball America's Top Thirty Pirate prospects (from behind a paywall). The Top Ten are 1. SS Oneil Cruz; 2. C Henry Davis; 3. 2B Nick Gonzales; 4. RHP Roansy Contreras; 5. SS Liover Peguero; 6. RHP Quinn Priester; 7. C/OF Endy Rodriguez; 8. RHP MIchael Burrows; 9. RHP Jared Jones and 10. RHP Carmen Mlodzinski.
• Pirates prospects invited to camp:

• Josh Harrison has agreed to a one-year agreement with the White Sox, with an option year
• The Phils signed ex-Buc prospects RHP James Marvel, 28, and IF Drew Maggi, 32, to minor league deals. Marvel got four starts for the Bucs in 2019 with a line of 0-3/8.31 (he was the Bucs' Minor League PoY) while Maggi last played with the Bucs at Altoona in 2014; this is his fifth organization since then.
• C Luke Maile agreed to a split deal with the Guardians worth $900K if he makes the Majors. He was in line for a Bucco back up spot in 2019 when he broke a finger after being HBP and was ultimately released. C Arden Pabst, who the Pirates drafted in 2016 and has served mostly as an Altoona backstop, signed a minor league deal with the Braves.
• RHP Jhan Marinez, 33, signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox. He went 0-1/3.18 for the Bucs in two dozen 2017 outings. He's been tossing in the Latin leagues since 2019.
• Sean Rodriguez was hired by the Phils as part of their player development staff. S-Rod played for 13 seasons, including two stints between 2015-18 as a popular utility guy with the Pirates. 

After huffing and puffing for 99 days, MLB and the MLBPA finally struck a five-year deal. It preserves the season, with many issues being resolved by a more-or-less midpoint meeting of figures and others pushed down the road. At first blush, looks like a good deal for the younger players but doesn't address the revenue/spending gap between the clubs, baseball's 800-pound elephant.  The major points of the CBA:

• CBT $230M in 2022, rising annually to $233M, $237M, $241M, $244M over the agreement's life, with no hard cap or floor;
• Minimum salary of $700,000 in 2022, increasing by $20K per year to $780,000; 
• Six-pick draft lottery, with the draft consisting of 20 rounds, and some service time tweaks; 
• New $50M pre-arbitration bonus pool and yo-yo players can be optioned five times per season (it had been three times) to allow added roster flexibility;
• Universal DH, return to nine-inning games for twin bills and no ghost runner in extra innings. The 15-day IL/option period were also brought back;  
• Starting in 2023, every team will play every other team in MLB for at least one series, followed by a 12-team postseason with no single-game eliminations;
•  A committee will study changes to playing rules such as a pitch clock, base size, shift-shunning and robo umps, for implementation in 2023;
• The union will drop its 2020 COVID grievance (bad faith bargaining), but not its 2018 revenue-sharing/payroll case (spending guidelines), which involves the Pirates; 
• The season will play out in full, with Opening Day April 7th, when the Bucs will meet St. Louis. The Pirates Home Opener will be on the 12th v the Cubs;
• The Rule 5 draft has been canceled for this year, the only plus for Pittsburgh and other rebuilding teams;
• Camp opens on Sunday;
• Free agency began immediately after the CBA was ratified after three-month delay; there are some 200 FA's of all stripes out there who have been treading water.