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Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported on Tuesday night that the arbitration tender deadline had been moved forward to November 30th at 8PM ET, from December 2nd, as per an agreement on the issue between MLB and the players union.
MLB and players’ union have agreed to move tender deadline from Dec. 2 to 8pE on Nov. 30. This way, arbitration-eligible players will not be in contractual limbo. A player who gets non-tendered will have the ability to sign with a new club before lockout begins. 1/2
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 24, 2021
The intent of this is to provide clarity on tender decisions to both teams and players before the possibility of a lockout, which already felt exceedingly likely and now seems nearly inevitable with this arrangement serving as a recognition of it’s likelihood by both sides. This clarity has some clear benefits to both sides. For players, arbitration-eligible players will get clarity on their contract situation before the lockout begins and those that are non-tendered will have a short window of opportunity to sign a contract on the open market and guarantee themselves money and clarity on where they will spend next season before the lockout freezes transactions and potentially alters the market. For teams, this will add supply to the free agent market before the lockout and add some players who teams may feel they have leverage over in wanting to sign a contract before the lockout freezes transactions.
For the Braves, the most interesting arbitration decision is likely on Adam Duvall, who they non-tendered last season for less money than he is expected to be due this season, but traded for at the deadline.