Major League Baseball and its players association agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday, with the five-year deal completed only hours before the old one was to expire.
A baseball official confirmed the deal to USA Today, but spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not announced.
The final issues that negotiators reportedly faced were the luxury-tax threshold, which is $189 million but expected to rise, and management’s desire for an international draft.
The sides met at a hotel outside Dallas where the MLBPA held its annual executive board meeting, with compensation for the loss of a free agent also among the final issues.
The old agreement was to expire at 12:01 a.m. ET on Thursday, but a lockout wasn’t expected because both sides were keen to continue negotiating.
Major League Baseball hasn’t endured a work stoppage in more than two decades, since a strike that lasted 232 days wiped out the 1994 World Series and lasted until March 31, 1995.