BREAKING: A deal is in place between the minor league players in the MLBPA and Major League Baseball on the historic first collective-bargaining agreement for minor leaguers, union officials tell ESPN. Deal is five years and includes at least 2x pay at all levels of the minors. Details on pay increases in the minor leagues:

Complex league: From $4,800 per year to $19,800
Low-A: $11,000 to $26,200
High-A: $11,000 to $27,300
AA: $13,800 to $30,250
AAA: $17,500 to $35,800

Players will be paid almost year-round, aside from a six-week break in the winter.

THREAD: There’s a lot to digest on Julio Rodríguez’s extension with Seattle, per ESPN sources. The deal could be for 8, 13, 16 or 18 years. It guarantees Rodriguez $210 million. If it maxes out, it will be the largest ever: $470 million. The details are important. Here they are. The base of the deal is for eight years and $120 million. It includes this season and runs through 2029. After 2028, the Mariners must decide whether to pick up a club option. The size and length of that depends on Rodriguez’s performance in MVP voting.

Atlanta and Kansas City are finalizing a trade that will send center-field prospect Drew Waters, right-handed pitching prospect Andrew Hoffmann and a third minor leaguer to the Royals for the 35th pick in Sunday's draft, which has a $2.2 million slot value, sources tell ESPN. Before the trade, the Braves had the 19th-highest bonus pool for the draft. The $2.2 million slot for the 35th pick moves them up to 10th in overall money, with $10.2 million. The Orioles have the most money to spend at $16.9 million, followed by the Diamondbacks and the Mets.

THREAD: Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter of inquiry to @MiLBAdvocates seeking asking questions about the minor leagues.

This issue is extremely important. It is also very complicated. Here is where the situation stands — and where it may soon go. 1/18 Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption, granted in 1922, is a powerful weapon the league uses in multiple ways. The exemption is the pretext for TV blackouts. It allows MLB to control franchise relocation. But the biggest effect may be how it effects the minor leagues. 2/18

THREAD: Let’s start with some facts.

The New York Yankees cheated.

The Boston Red Sox cheated.

The Houston Astros cheated.

All of them used technology in real time to steal signs. (1/9) Now if you want to be the person who says cheating is cheating, it’s all bad, they’re all the same — you do you.

If you’re rational and understand that cheating in sport exists on a continuum, then you understand the differences among the three teams that have been proven. (2/9)

BREAKING: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal, sources tell ESPN. While it still needs to be ratified by both parties, that is expected to be a formality, and when it is:

Baseball is back. And so am I.

In a voice message sent to a group chat that has been widely shared in Dominican baseball circles, David Ortiz, perhaps the most influential baseball voice in the country, came out strongly against the international draft, according to a copy of the message obtained by ESPN. I reached out to David Ortiz, and in a 25-minute conversation, he outlined his issues with the international draft. He is not fundamentally opposed to the idea. What bothers him is the potential rapidity of its implementation. He believes more time is necessary for it to happen.

Yankees president Randy Levine is currently talking with @RealMichaelKay: "Forget blaming people or yelling people or being mad at people. We are where we are. We need to get this done." Interview is live here: espn.com/radio/play/_/s… @RealMichaelKay Another quote from Yankees president Randy Levine on the distribution of money: "If you give money from the pot to younger players, there may be less money for older players. ... From a union side, they have to measure all of these various constituencies and do what's practical."

THREAD: I’d like to talk about the CBT. Today was the third consecutive day of bargaining, and neither the league nor the union has made a proposal on the competitive-balance tax, which is vital seeing as it is almost certainly going to determine whether opening day is March 31. What indicates that, more than anything, is how deeply the league and the union are digging in. Both sides are waiting for the other to make a “big move.” That big move is on the CBT. Without it, there will be no deal by Monday. That has evolved from presumption to reality.

It's important, especially for those whose opinions on the matter are deeply ingrained and think any discussion of the tomahawk chop is disingenuous, to understand the mistreatment of indigenous people in Georgia and why the chop is so bothersome to many. So, a history lesson. In the early 1830s, the Muscogee (Creek) tribe was removed from land it owned in Georgia by the U.S. government. In 1838, the Cherokee tribe was forced by the government on a 1,200-mile march from Georgia. Thousands of people died. It's called the Trail of Tears with good reason.

🚨 CURRENT AL WILD CARD STANDINGS 🚨

New York 91-70
Boston 91-70
Seattle 90-71
Toronto 90-71

CHAOS LEVEL 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯/5

The Yankees and Red Sox control their own destiny. If they win Sunday, they will face one another in the AL wild card game. If not, all hell could break loose. CURRENT POSSIBILITIES (YES, THIS ALL COULD HAPPEN)

Four-way tie: Boston, Toronto, New York, Seattle

Three-way tie 1: Boston, Seattle, Toronto

Three-way tie 2: Boston, New York, Seattle

Three-way tie 3: Boston, Toronto, New York

Three-way tie 4: Toronto, New York, Seattle

🚨 CURRENT AL WILD CARD STANDINGS 🚨

New York 91-68
Boston 89-70
Seattle 89-70
Toronto 88-71

Three games left for each. Yanks at Rays, Red Sox at Nats, Mariners vs. Angels, Blue Jays vs. Orioles.

If things ended today, Mariners at Fenway in Game 163, winner faces Yankees. Some notes:

- Houston and Atlanta clinched their divisions today

- Yankees' magic number is 2

- In a three-way wild-card tie, teams chose to be Club A, B or C. If it's Boston, Seattle and Toronto, the Red Sox pick first, Mariners second, Blue Jays third. Wrote a bit about it.

THREAD: If the Blue Jays take 2 of 3 from the Yankees and sweep the O’s, the Yankees take 2 of 3 from the Rays, and the Red Sox win 4 of 6 against Baltimore and Washington, there will be a three-way tie for two AL wild card spots.

I love chaos.

Here's how it would work. (1/5) In the case of a three-way tie for two spots, the tiebreakers go like this: Club A hosts Club B in the first game, and the winner gets the first AL wild card spot. The loser then travels to Club C for the second game, and the winner gets the second AL wild card spot. (2/5)

Atlanta Braves star Marcell Ozuna was arrested today and charged with aggravated assault strangulation and misdemeanor battery - family violence in Sandy Springs, Ga., according to jail records on the Fulton County (Ga.) website. Major League Baseball is expected to open an investigation into Marcell Ozuna following his arrest, sources tell ESPN. He could be subject to the league’s domestic-violence policy and faces a potential suspension.

One of the coolest things I’ve seen in baseball in a very long time is happening today: Infielder Sean Kazmar Jr. is being called up by Atlanta, sources tell ESPN. If you’ve never heard of Sean Kazmar, that’s understandable. He’s 36 years old. He’s a middle infielder. And the last time he played in the major leagues was in 2008, when he played some games in August and September for a San Diego Padres team that almost lost 100 games.

THREAD: Here's how to understand MLB's current offer to the players as compared to its last offer and the possibility of a 48-game season. Original offer: 82 games, players receive $1.03B in salary and $200M if playoffs are played.

Current offer: 76 games, players receive $989M in salary and $443M if playoffs are played, plus no direct draft-pick compensation.

48-game option: $1.03B in salary, no playoff money

If y'all are ready for some late-night nerding out, I'm going to explain the marginal salary structure MLB proposed to the union today. It’s complicated and will be rejected, but it's interesting to see how the league structured its first offer to the players, so bear with me. Every dollar a player is due would be paid at a certain percentage. The higher the dollars get, the lower those percentages go. All of the salaries for the season would be prorated, too, meaning they would be based on playing 82 of the scheduled 162 games.

THREAD: To prepare you for the debut of the KBO on ESPN in less than 10 hours, I did @edsbs' bidding and compiled the nastiest, sauciest, most disrespectful, outright felonious bat flips from the league that does nasty, saucy, disrespectful, felonious bat flips better than any. @edsbs This might be the best introduction possible to KBO bat flipping. The standard style is a two-handed, tomahawk-released, end-over-end projectile. The two angles here really sell it.

As the Winter Meetings unfold over the next 96 hours or so, this feed hopefully will be full of free agent signings. So please humor me for a few moments to honor the person who literally created all of the sweet, sweet hot stove action you so desire. Today, a 16-man panel will vote on the candidacy of 10 men to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Nine of them were players in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. The 10th is Marvin Miller, whose exclusion up to this point is the Hall's biggest travesty.

What the Atlanta Braves have done this winter sets them up for a decade. Literally. They got 19 years of two franchise-caliber players for a max of $145M. Four of those years were going to be at minimum salary, seven of them at arbitration salaries. That's important to note. 1/9 Atlanta got four free agent years each on Ronald Acuña and Ozzie Albies. The importance of this – and the extreme value – cannot be understated. If either is what he can be, Atlanta bought itself hundreds of millions of dollars is surplus value. Yes: Hundreds. Of. Millions. 2/9

This is Leo Guastello. He is 6 years old. And the story of how he got this bat is wonderful. So it’s about 5:55 p.m., and Shohei Ohtani has just finished taking batting practice. Rather than head back to the clubhouse with his teammates, he curls behind the cage and starts signing autographs.