HOW THE MAJORS HAVE CHANGED FOR YOUNG PLAYERS

When negotiating the 2022 Collective Bargaining Agreement, the MLB Players Association prioritized the earning power of young major league players, especially young stars.

- Matt Eddy

In a press release, the players' union praised the new CBA by saying that it "provides fairer wages to players at all points of their careers." Age has become a top consideration of the MLBPA because age has become a top consideration for MLB organizations when evaluating free agents.

This past offseason made clear that age is definitely not just a number to front offices. Not when 25-year-old foreign professionals Yoshinobu Yamamoto and JungHoo Lee signed two of the four most lucrative contracts in their free agent class.

Players as young as Yamamoto and Lee almost never hit the traditional MLB free agent market. In fact, most players who sign out of the draft or as international amateurs do not qualify for free agency for the first time until they are approaching 30.