Juan Soto may have to clear expensive CBA hurdle to wear Brett Baty’s No. 22 as a Met

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://nypost.com/2024/12/10/sports/juan-soto-may-have-to-clear-expensive-cba-hurdle-to-wear-no-22-with-mets/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialJuan Soto may have to clear expensive CBA hurdle to wear Brett Baty's No. 22 as a Met

The rule is in Attachment 19 of the current CBA under the uniform regulations section and states: “A Player will not be permitted to change his jersey number even if such request is approved by his Club unless the request was received by the Office of the Commissioner no later than July 31 of the year preceding the championship season in which the jersey number change would take effect.” Two exceptions are listed in the rule that allows a player to change a number after the deadline, one of which is if the player who previously wore the number changes teams. The other is if “the player (or someone on his behalf) purchases the existing finished-goods inventory” with that number.

I don't imagine there's a lot of Baty merchandise out there, at least not compared to players like Lindor or Nimmo or Alonso.



And I expect Soto can afford it anyway. But I had no idea that this rule existed until now.

[metirish]

That's wild , never knew this existed

[Centerfield]

That is the dumbest rule I've ever heard of in my life.



Interesting that the author uses "MLB" as the entity that needs to be paid. Just say it's the owners.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=metirish post_id=180698 time=1733860366 user_id=72]
That's wild , never knew this existed

[Edgy MD]

I imagine a lot, since he opened the season as an MLB starter in a featured market, with ample supply of Baty/New York Mets jerseys ready to go into circulation, and ended up spending most of the last 2/3 in Syracuse, as not a New York Met at all.



Shirts don't sell, and somebody gets stuck with the bill.

[Centerfield]

MLB Owners: Baty changed his number? No fair! You have to pay us!



Fans who bought the Jerseys: Hey, what about us?



MLB Owners: Players change numbers. Deal with it.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

It's been on the books since the last CBA. It hasn't really affected the pace of number-switching. I think it would be the MLB's interest to keep Soto in 22, but I'm into him getting a new identity

[MFS62]

The least complicated remedy seems to be - trade Baty.(which seems a likely possibility anyhow)

Oh, and fuck the owners.



Later

[Edgy MD]

I think the least complicated remedy is to just deal.



If Soto is assigned 25, or 88, 10, I think the world will spin right on unaffected.



If the commissioner has to give a special waiver or Steve Cohen has to buy back a whole bunch of BATY 22 jerseys, the moon will also remain in orbit.

[Centerfield]

His instagram handle uses 25. Maybe he'll switch to that.



22 is bad luck anyway. Bust number.



Kinda like Francisco Lindor's hard 12.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I associate 22 with Mets World Series MVPs. Donn Clendenon in 1969 and Ray Knight in 1986.



I therefore had high hopes for Kevin McReynolds in 1988, and Al Leiter in 1999 and 2000.



Not so much Michael Tucker in 2006 or Kevin Plawecki in 2015. And Baty would have been a longshot in 2024.



Soto seems like a good choice to keep the tradition alive. But if his social media handles include the number 25, that could work too. I'm with Edgy, I don't care what number he wears as long as he's productive in it. What the hell, give him number 8.

[Frayed Knot]

I knew there were restrictions on in-season switching but a deadline eight months prior to the start of the next season seems a bit over the top.



When Michael Jordan came back to the Bulls from his 1-1/2 year baseball sabbatical he did so in a different number (45 I think). But after a very short

time he opted to return to his original 23 leaving a whole lot of newly minted Bulls/45 on shelves everywhere. The NBA told the Bulls they were subject

to fines if this happened but neither they nor Jordan cared and a fine was levied for each game he played wearing 23 for the remainder of that season.