Thoughts on the new contract

I see a lot of people wondering if Pedro new Alvarez's contract is legal and if it will "stick." I did some thinking about this last night, and I think it's a pretty frivolous worry for a few reasons. First of all, Pedro became a member of the Pirates' organization as soon as he signed that contract on August 15/16th and the Commissioner's Office approved of it. A grievance was filed about the legitimacy of that contract, but the grievance hasn't been resolved yet, so Pedro's original deal still counts. That gives him the right to renegotiate just like anyone else, which is what he and the Pirates did last night.

The leaves the question of the grievance, but I think the grievance is probably going to be dropped at this point. The grievance was filed over the legitimacy of the extension of the deadline, but by having the contract renegotiated well after the deadline, the deadline itself is rendered kind of impotent and the point of contention over the extensions is moot. Alvarez is (I think) an MLBPA member now with his major league deal and if he's happy with his contract and wants the grievance dropped, it'll be dropped. So what I'm saying is, I guess it's possible that someone will fight this deal, but it seems pretty unlikely to me at this point.