Spring Training begins and Opening Day for baseball will be pushed back a week.
(ESPN) - The MLB lockout is over.
It took more than three months -- and multiple deadlines for delaying the regular season -- before Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association ended their stalemate and came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement.
The union did not panic when the league created a deadline on Feb. 28. A week and a half later, it ended up with both a better offer and increased urgency as the calendar pages fell away and there would be a point where playing 162 games -- and getting paid for it -- would be in real jeopardy. It turns out this was what was needed after months of stalled negotiations. The union's calmness in the face of the "deadlines" proved fruitful. -- Jesse Rogers
What to know and what's next?
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Opening Day moves to April 7 and a full 162-game schedule will be played
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Spring training camps open with a March 11 voluntary report date and March 13 mandatory date
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Spring training games start March 17
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Free agency to begin immediately once CBA is ratified
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Playoffs expand to 12 teams, beginning this season
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The National League adopts the designated hitter starting this season
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CBT expected to begin at $230 million and grow to $244 million
