The Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe and its four member leagues have extended the Winter League Agreement through 2027, with provisions governing the eligibility of players in the minor leagues in the United States extended through 2028.
The Winter League Agreement is and agreement between Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the CBPC and its four constituent leagues — the Dominican Republic’s LIDOM, Puerto Rico’s LBPRC, Venezuela’s Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, and Mexico’s Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico — that governs, among other things, which players under contract to MLB organizations are allowed to play, financial responsibility and insurance for player injuries, and facilities standards.
On Saturday, the CBPC notified MLB and the MLBPA, the labor union that represents MLB and minor league players, of their approval of the extension of the agreement, which is now in force until July 31, 2027, except for the provisions relating to the participation of minor league players, which will be in effect through July 31, 2028.
“This is not a new signature, but rather an extension of the agreement, which adjusts a limited number of clauses by formally adding an addendum to the WLA,” the CBPC said in Spanish in a statement sent out to media. “The four winter leagues expressed their satisfaction with the content of the new clauses and officially informed MLB, through Caribbean Baseball Commissioner Juan Francisco Puello Herrera, of their agreement to proceed with the corresponding administrative procedures.”
The extended agreement will also create more opportunities for minor league players to play in the four CBPC winter leagues, reduces the number of players who can be held out by their MLB clubs without meeting criteria for injuries or extreme fatigue, revises the thresholds for categorizing a player having extreme fatigue, and changes the deadline for when MLB clubs must inform which players are injured, physically unable to perform, extremely fatigued, or are placed on club-exempt status from playing winter ball.
Without a Winter League Agreement in place, the Serie del Tequila between the LIDOM champion Leones del Escogido and the LAMP champion Charros de Jalisco, scheduled for last weekend at Estadio Panamericano in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, was cancelled. Had an agreement not been reached, it likely would have imperiled the Serie del Cibao scheduled for Nov. 7-9 and the LIDOM/LBPRC All-Star Game on Nov. 15, both of which are to be held at New York’s Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.
Photo: Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is the home of the Tigres del Licey and the Leones del Escogido of LIDOM. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
