Major League Baseball

Confusion over MLB CBA abounds as Dominican Winter League continues business as usual

Published Dec. 8, 2021 5:29 p.m. ET

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By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic –– Despite the lockout, there is baseball ... and confusion.

On Thursday evening, less than 24 hours after MLB and its owners implemented a lockout, initiating the sport’s first work stoppage in decades, things were business as usual in the Dominican Winter League.

On a crisp Caribbean night at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal in the capital, Leones del Escogido blanked Águilas Cibaeñas 5-0. Mike Brosseau scored the go-ahead run in the sixth on an Aaron Hicks double. Albert Pujols also drove in a run. Triple-A East MVP Aderlin Rodríguez hit a ball to Neptune. 

The eternal Fernando Rodney shut the door with two strikeouts in the ninth to earn the save.

There were drums and horns and flags, lots of small ball and full bottles of rum emptying, endless sports joy and a small fight in the stands in the seventh inning. It was just another wonderful night of baseball in the most passionate league on the planet.

But while the hubbub stateside could not stop the party completely, the ramifications of MLB’s most contentious labor dispute since 1994 were still felt by everyone around the Dominican game. In the days leading up to the CBA’s expiration at midnight Dec. 2, team officials in LIDOM — the Spanish language acronym for the Dominican Winter League — were unsure whether 40-man MLB players on Dominican rosters would be permitted to continue playing through the lockout. Agents didn’t really know either. Nor did local media members or the players themselves. 

It fluctuates weekly, but the six clubs in LIDOM typically have between seven and 15 40-man players rostered at any given time. This runs the gambit from veterans such as Hicks looking to bounce back from injury to notable prospects such as Tampa Bay Rays infielder Vidal Brujan to big-league bench infielders such as Chicago Cubs shortstop Sergio Alcántara to back-of-the-roster bullpen arms such as recent Washington Nationals waiver claim Francisco Perez. 

If all the 40-man players were forced to bounce, it would significantly lower the level of play in LIDOM.

As it turned out, LIDOM teams proceeded with a strategy of asking for forgiveness, not permission, and most relevant 40-man players were penciled into lineups across the island on the afternoon of Dec. 2, the day after the CBA expired. Most of those players have continued to play; business as usual.

According to ESPN’s Enrique Rojas, MLB is telling team officials and coaches across the Caribbean that they can continue their participation in winter ball. MLB is fine with affiliated coaches interacting with affiliated players, so long as they don’t discuss the current labor situation.

This is relevant when you consider that part of MLB’s lockout negotiation strategy involves a mandate that team employees avoid conversing with 40-man players. That is a larger story, with implications beyond winter ball, but MLB’s no-interaction policy, disseminated to club employees on a team-by-team basis, created a cloud of confusion for those working in winter ball.

Here’s an example of how things could have gotten sticky. 

Approximately 80% of LIDOM coaches and front-office people are also employees of MLB teams. For instance, Toros del Este general manager Raymond Abreu is Oakland’s director of Latin American operations, Tigres del Licey skipper Tony Díaz is Minnesota’s third-base coach, and Leones del Escogido hitting coach Brady North is an assistant hitting coach for the Rays.

Rays catching prospect Rene Pinto was just added to Escogido’s active roster. Pinto –– who just had a superb minor-league season, knocking 20 bombs across Double-A and Triple-A –– was added to the Rays’ 40-man roster on Nov. 7. Technically, that would preclude him from having any interaction with North, Escogido’s current hitting coach and an employee of Tampa Bay’s big-league team. That’s obviously an unrealistic expectation for both Pinto and North. Thankfully, it appears there will be some leeway on this front; business, again, as usual.

But while there’s clarity about player-coach interaction and 40-man-player participation, one topic remains incredibly unsettled in the Dominican Republic and all other Caribbean winter leagues: player health.

Typically, if a 40-man player were to get injured while playing winter ball, the winter ball team would pay the initial medical costs associated with the injury –– MRIs, hospital stays in the winter ball country, etc. –– but the MLB team would be responsible for any travel costs related to the injury and any costs beyond $15,000.

Those rules are part of an agreement between MLB and the Caribbean Confederation, the overarching winter ball organization that governs relationships among the six relevant winter leagues (in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Puerto Rico) and coordinates the late-winter Caribbean Series tournament featuring the winners of each league.

A copy of that agreement from 2014 is online in full. Article 12 stipulates that in the event that MLB and the MLBPA don’t come to an agreement on a CBA, the commissioner may terminate the winter ball agreement. There are no more recent copies of the Winter League Agreement available to the public, but there are also no indications as of now that Rob Manfred has torn up the agreement.

Sources inside LIDOM indicated that the winter league agreement operates outside the scope of the CBA, but that still leaves 40-man players across the region in limbo, even if the commissioner chooses not to terminate the current agreement. If any of the 50 or so 40-man players in LIDOM were to get injured and need to fly stateside for medical attention, it’s unclear who would fund that right now. 

How can, say, the Milwaukee Brewers pay for, say, Brosseau’s travel and recovery if the team can't have any contact with the player? It’s all very hazy. One source claimed that if a team refused to pay for medical costs, a player might have grounds for legal action against the team.

And that’s the status quo. Since the CBA expired, dozens of 40-man players have suited up in LIDOM. Thankfully, none of them has gotten hurt so far. Hopefully, none of them does. 

The sense of normalcy in the D.R. is equally startling and refreshing. Underneath a cloud of confusion, in front of thousands of deafening fans, baseball perseveres in the country that cherishes it unlike any other. 

On Tuesday night, Rodney blew the save.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.

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