ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement

Okay kiddo, imagine you and your friend want to play baseball together. But you want to make sure you both agree on the rules and how to share things like gloves and balls. That's kind of like what the Major League Baseball (MLB) and the players' union do with something called the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Basically, the CBA is a really long list of rules and agreements that the MLB teams and the players' union have agreed upon. These rules cover a lot of things like how much money the players get paid, how long they can play for a team before they can become a free agent, and how they can be traded or released from a team.

Every few years, the MLB and the players' union get together to negotiate and update this agreement. When they can't agree on something, they might even have to go on strike, which means the players refuse to play games until they reach a new agreement.

But why is this important? Well, the CBA affects the lives and careers of many baseball players, and it also affects how the teams are run and the overall business of MLB. So it's really important that everyone agrees on what the rules are so that they can all play by the same rules and everyone is happy.