Yankees and Major League Baseball arrive at a crossroads

Show me less money

Of course, owners always have to stop themselves collectively from spending too much money individually.

So the new CBA changes the international rules and salary cap, which encourages all the teams them to spend more in small ways but really ups the penalties for the most prominent offenders; I’ve linked to several articles, and anyone with a keen interest should read them.

Most important for Yankees fans is that the cap has moved up and will keep running up. While it only goes up from $195 million to $197 million for 2018, it shoots all the way up to $206M for 2019.

And hints and conversations are being held that suggest changes of equal impact. The new CBA gives the commissioner power to unilaterally make rules changes this year, which he did not have last year.

It looks like limiting visits to the mound is a sure thing; fair enough.

But the powers that be have been experimenting quite a bit this year in the winter leagues. This season might see something as different as placing a man on second to start each half of an extra-inning game, beginning with the eleventh inning. It will undoubtedly be an omnipresent topic.